The Torah and the yeshiva and chasidic world is in mourning with the petirah of one of the senior Roshei Yeshiva of our generation, Hagaon Rav Elyakim Schlesinger zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas HaRama in London and author of Beis Av. He was 104 years old. Until his final moments, the Rosh Yeshiva remained fully lucid and even delivered a shmuess last Shabbos.
Over the past week his condition declined following pneumonia, and he was hospitalized after his kidneys ceased functioning. He was niftar late last night.
The levayah will take place today (Wednesday) at Yeshivas HaRama in Stamford Hill, London, with kevurah in Enfield. The mitah will arrive at the yeshiva at 5:30 PM (100 Fairholt Road), and the hespedim will begin at 7:00 PM.
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Rabbi Schlesinger zt”l was born in Vienna in 5682 (1921) and studied under the Daas Sofer in Pressburg, later receiving semichah in Nitra. After moving to Eretz Yisrael, he learned in Yerushalayim and in Ponovezh, becoming close to the Ponovezher Rav. Following his marriage to the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Bloy z”l, he served as Rosh Yeshiva in Yerushalayim and later, at the recommendation of the Brisker Rav zt”l, relocated to England, where he founded Yeshivas HaRama.
He established the first kollel in London, laying the foundation for the Torah world in England. Known for his close קשר with gedolei Yisrael, his open home, and his tireless mesirus nefesh for pure chinuch, he raised generations of talmidim imbued with Torah and yiras Shamayim..jpg)
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HaGaon Rav Elyakim. Schlesinger zt”l was well known for his close קשרים with the Gedolei Yisroel of his dor, among them the Brisker Rav, the Chazon Ish, and other גדולי עולם. Many of the precious memories he had from those encounters were later written down in his sefer HaDor VeHaTekufah.
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For many years he was marbitz Torah to alfei ורבבות, and was zocheh to raise talmidim who became גדולי תורה ויראה. He stood b’mesirus nefesh on the mishmeres of chinuch tahor in England, and the gezeirah of giyus bnei hayeshivos in Eretz Yisroel burned in his heart constantly..
In the year 5779 he traveled to a historic, high-level meeting with the British Secretary of Education, in an attempt to be mashpia that the harsh gezeirah signed by the Department of Education be rescinded. This decree sought to obligate all independent schools to teach curricula that are not fitting for Torah-true chinuch, and are not even compatible with basic religious education.
Kuloh Torah every moment that was free was dedicated to intense hasmadah, to the extent that it was impossible to distract him from his learning. His avodah of tefillah was something exceptional, marked by deep chiyus and heartfelt tears shed daily before the Ribono shel Olam.
He leaves behind a דור ישרים מבורך: nine children, including his eldest son, the gaon Rabbi Eliezer Schlesinger, who continues his path as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas HaRama, along with many descendants marbitzei Torah v’yirah.
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I think I read that book in a shul once . Great stories
ReplyDeleteThe stories in that work should not be taken at face value.
ReplyDeleteThat said, he was a big מרביץ תורה, and raised a very choshuv family. יהי זכרו ברוך
[Side note: his maternal grandfather was R' Yaakov Rosenheim, leader of אגו"י.]
Of course, Rav Moshe Bloi was longtime leader of Israeli Agudah (brother of Rav Amram Bloi, founder of Neturei Karta, and beloved by all Israelis, even though everyone hated his politics.) That is nothing like American Agudah, an affinity and lobbying group (like the various Hungarian and German Agudah.) Israeli Agudah is a political party, as was the Polish Agudah.
Delete(side point, what are you doing on a blog like this, I remember you from other blogs?)
They absolutely should be taken at face value. He was an Odom Godol that many Gedolim were machshiv.
DeleteMoshe how are you? I can't believe you're still commenting on blogs.
DeleteWhy should it not be taken at face value??did he exaggerate or lie or it simply doesn't fit your world (bubble) view?
ReplyDeleteIt is a very accurate work all first hand information, not somebody researching and putting together a book from different sources. It is an insightful and illuminating read.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very accurate and insightful work. It is all first-hand information not somebody researching generations later and putting together from different sources trying to paint a picture or give over information. It is one of the best accounts about those he's writing about.
ReplyDeleteOlder Yerushalmi Yidden know not to believe his stories.
ReplyDeleteIf you read about the Brisker Rav without accepting a single one of his stories, your picture of the Brisker Rav will look quite different.
During the years that Yeshivas Haramah was successful, the Magid Shiur was Reb Tuvia Weiss, later Rav of the Edah Charedis organization in Yerushalayim. When he left, the Yeshiva lost its luster.
ReplyDeleteWhen Reb Eliezer Schlesinger opened his Yeshiva under the auspices of Yeshivas haromo, things turned around again.
I wouldn’t assume that R Schlesinger ZL would lie or exaggerate as someone suggested. But he was a man with strongly held views and his depictions of the gedolim he knew were very much in line with his own views and diverged from the depictions of those same gedolim by the majority of their students and others who knew them, and from available evidence. So it would appear that RAS saw things as he would have preferred to see them and remembered them as he would have preferred to remember them.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty widely accepted by people who are familiar with these matters.
I’m actually related to a grandson of his, and I asked him if within the Schlesinger family those stories are accepted as truth. His immediate response was a firm no. Then he added that they probably all have a kernel of truth but got distorted etc., which for our purposes amounts to the same thing.
None of this takes away from the fact that he was a talmid chochom and yorei shomayim and marbitz Torah. (Also, I don’t recall ever meeting him, but I’ve known a number of his children and grandchildren over the years, and they were all without exception rollicking geshmacker guys, so I suspect he himself might have been a big personality as well.)
His brother passed away in Queens over a decade ago.A real righteous straightshooting man.He was advised to flee Tel Aviv because his Tzeirei Agudah branch which he led was gaining too many young members, & his life was threatened by the zionist underground
ReplyDeleteRES F-I-L died suspiciously from poisoning en route to London also after being threatened by pre-state zionist organs.
Par for the course then.
Rav Kook said about him that Eretz Yisroel would eventually expel him. Indeed, he died in Chutz La'aretz.
Delete1:06 About who? The one who was murdered trying to save religious Jerusalem?
DeleteThe claim that RMB was poisoned by Zionists is from RW circles associated with the עדה החרדית (and is also "par for the course" :)). Others - most notably his own family - claim he got ill from heartbreak over the Edah/Agudah split.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a bit odd that the Zionists would pick RMB specifically to poison, he being on the more moderate side of the spectrum. At the time of his death, his slate of Adugah people had just been ousted from the Edah leadership, and he therefore left his position in the Edah as well, to remain with the Agudah.
Solid Revisionism.
Deleteiirc The Eidah/Agudah split was a decade earlier and had no relevance.
He was pointedly threatened that if he goes to the Mandate commission in London to testify against potential Zionist control of Jerusalem he would not come back alive!
[Like many distinguished others he preferred the Mandate or International control at least of Jerusalem]
Then on the ship somehow off the coast of Italy he suddenly got terribly sick from, with all medical evidence implied, was poisoning
You do not recall correctly. The internal elections which resulted in RMB and the Agudah leaving the AHC were in July 1945, less than a year before RMB was niftar.
ReplyDeleteRMB was not heading to London to testify against Zionist control of Jerusalem, and the notion that he was threatened by anyone is most likely invented. No way to know for sure, of course.
What in the world, according to you, was he going there for then???
DeleteHe wasn’t heading there altogether. He was heading to the US. It was a fundraising trip.
Delete