7 Responses

1. BDE
   Levayah@ 7pm 53rd and 16th street

2. boruch dayan haemes

3. Does anyone know where at JFK the aron will be brought and the time of arrival there?

4. What a loss! He was able to give shiurim on so many different levels….
   Made Tisha BAv into Tisha BAv for so many years for hundreds each year!
   Baruch Dayan Emes!

5. מגדולי בעלי המוסר • הגה”צ רבי שלמה ברעוודה זצ”ל
   אבל בעולם הישיבות • המגיד הגה”צ רבי שלמה ברעוודה זצ”ל, הלך לעולמו לאחר מחלה ממושכת • מתלמידי הגר”י לווינשטין ומגדולי בעלי המוסר • הלוויתו תצא מחר בירושלים מישיבת תורה אור רח’
   סרוצקין בשעה 7:00 בערב להר המנוחות

   את תורת המוסר קנה ממשגיח ישיבת פוניבז’ הגר”י לוינשטיין זצ”ל שדחפו לחזק את לימוד המוסר

   בשנת תשכ”ג חיבר את הספר ‘עמלה של תורה’ לבקשת ה’קהילות יעקב’ והרב שך זצ”ל, שביקשו ממנו לחזק את בני התורה להמשיך באהלה של תורה

   חיבר גם פירוש על ‘שיר השירים’ ד’ חלקים על ביאור הגר”א, וכן ‘קיימו וקיבלו’ על עניני פורים, ‘יבנה המקדש’, ‘תפילת חנה’, ‘להודות ולהלל’ על חנוכה, וכן פירוש על הגדה של פסח.

   בעת שהותו בארץ היה מוסר שיחות מוסר בהיכלי התורה והישיבות – שיחות שהיו מושכים אליהם אלפים

   הותיר אחריו את רעייתו שתחי’ שלשה בנים, וחתניו: הרב אלטוסקי והרב יוסף יוסילובסקי והרב אשר דרוק

6. Harav Shlomo Leib Brevda, zt”l

   Harav Shlomo (Leib) Brevda, a prolific author and Maggid who traveled around the world for about 60 years delivering Divrei Chizuk at the behest of his Rebbi, Harav Chatzkel Levinstein, was Niftar yesterday afternoon following an extended illness. He was 81. Rav Brevda, who was in New York at the time of his Petirah, was the impetus behind the Brisker Rav establishing his now-famed yeshivah in Yerushalayim.

   He devoted his life to doing extensive research on the Vilna Gaon’s sefarim, publishing many of them with his own commentary.

   “Something unique about him, something extremely positive, was that everyone who spoke about his Shmuessen had the same line: They always felt addressed,” a family member said. “You could have someone as young as 8 and as old as 80 and they all felt like he was talking to them.”

   Rav Brevda was born in Crown Heights in 1931 to Reb Moshe Yitzchak and Miriam Brevda. A Ben Acher Ben of Harav Chaim Chaika of Amdora, one of the Mezritcher Maggid’s big Talmidim, Reb Moshe Yitzchak brought his family to the United States from Baranovich in Poland prior to Reb Shlomo’s birth.

   Reb Shlomo learned in Yeshivah Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, then the country’s premier Yeshivah for higher learning. A straight A-plus student in Hebrew and secular studies, Reb Shlomo prepared to start going to college following Rosh Hashanah of 1947. But shortly before the Yamim Noraim, the bulk of the Mirrer Yeshivah, miraculously rescued from the Holocaust through their sojourn in Shanghai, China, arrived in New York, Harav Chatzkel Levenstein, the Mashgiach, at their head.

   Reb Shlomo spent an uplifting Rosh Hashanah with Reb Chatzkel, and then decided that he wanted to remain learning Torah full time.“If this is Yiddishkeit,” he said, “then I am not going to college.” That decision was not an easy one. Friends in YU ostracized him over it. Family members thought he was crazy. But the worst was yet to come. As the “only” Yeshivah Bachur in the Shul where he Davened, a Makom Tefillah for more than 800 Mispallelim, he was requested to speak that year at the Simchas Bais HaSoavoh .

   Reb Shlomo cried out in his short lived Drashah “College,” “Rachmana Litzlan!!!!!!!!!!!!”
   He then ducked, not a second too soon. Members of the Shul, incensed at his denigration of what was an integral of the American Jewish lifestyle, began pelting him with objects, then graduating to chairs and benches.
   After what he later said was a 20-minute scuffle, Reb Shlomo told them, “I learned from Reb Chatzkel not to be scared and I’m going to continue talking like this always saying the truth.”

   Determined to fulfill his dream of fulltime learning Torah. Right after Reb. Chatzkel moved to Eretz Yisroel, Reb Shlomo went to Lakewood where he heard Shiurim from Harav Aharon Kotler, zt”l. Reb Shlomo developed a very close Kesher with the Rosh Yeshivah, that was so close, that when he wanted to leave Lakewood for Eretz Yisrael to join Reb Chatzkel Reb Aharon begged him to stay.
   Reb Aron said to him: “The yeshivah will close and everyone will leave if you leave,” Reb Aharon said. Reb Shlomo was only granted permission to leave if he would sneak out and not tell anyone. He then sailed to Eretz Yisrael a trip that took Two month the boat almost sank twice, and settled in Yerushalayim.

   The Holy Land in the 1950s offered the young Bachur a plethora of unique opportunities. He drew near many Gedolim, but gained an exceptionally close relationship with the Brisker Rav Reb Chaim Schmulivitz and the Chazon Ish etc.
   “Let in the American bachur!” the Chazon Ish would exclaim upon seeing Reb Shlomo during his visits to Bnei Brak.

   Reb Shlomo would speak with the Brisker Rav in learning for a half hour to an hour, a daily Seder that took a tremendous exertion on Reb Shlomo’s part. The Rav was known for his sharpness and intolerance of those who wanted to talk just for the sake of talking. So Reb Shlomo would prepare for close to ten hours each day for the hour long discussion.

   It was apparent that the Rav enjoyed these sessions. One day he asked Reb Shlomo where he learned.“I’m waiting for the Rav to open a yeshivah,” Reb Shlomo responded boldly.“A yeshiva for one Bachur?” the Rav replied. “A yeshivah needs at least two bachuirim, so that they could have a chavrusa. Get another bachur and we will open a yeshivah.”Shortly afterward, the Brisker Yeshivah opened for two Bachurim on Press St., with Harav Berel Soloveitchek, zt”l, the Rav’s son, giving the shiurim.

   One condition the Rav placed on the Yeshivah’s opening was that the two Bachurim not tell anyone in the world. And, indeed, for six months nobody knew of its existence, even when the Chazon Ish — who wanted to learn with Reb Shlomo on a steady basis — asked him where he was learning.

   After six month The Brisker Rav call in Reb Shlomo and said to him “I see you are a Ne’eman,” I can trust you, you know how to keep a secret, the Brisker Rav told Reb Shlomo after the first zman was over. “I sent people to check up on you and you indeed did not tell anyone. I am now publicizing the Yeshivah and you will become a Ben Bayis by me 24-7.”

   While learning in Brisk, word of his Hasmadah and success in Torah was reaching his old neighborhood in Brooklyn NY. Prospective fathers-in-law wanted him for their daughter, with one even offering a $250,000 Nadan and another $750,000. etc. Reb Shlomo consulted with Reb Chatzkel, who had in the meantime become Mashgiach in Ponovezh, who told him to turn them all down.
   “If you want a happy life,” Reb Chatzkel said, “make sure you marry a poor girl from a Torah’dige house. Because with lots money one can never have a happy life.”

   Taking this advice literally, Reb Shlomo rejected any Shidduch with wealth in the family — even as several Rabbanim vied for him. He finally married his Rebbetzin, the daughter of Reb Avraham Boruch Greenblatt, “a tremendous Masmid, who lived with his 11 children in a one-bedroom apartment,” according to Reb Velvel Brevda, Reb Shlomo’s son. Harav Efraim Greenblatt, the former Rav of Memphis, Tenn., who currently lives in Eretz Yisrael, was one of those children. Following Reb Shlomo’s marriage, Reb Chatzkel informed him that his “Tafkid on the world is to learn with people, to teach people of all ages.”
   That assignment was a difficult one for the young man, who admitted that “I was so shy [as a child] that when my mother would ask me to go to the neighbor to get milk I would run to my room to hide.”

   Reb Shlomo moved to New York, he took a job as an 8th grade Rebbi inWilliamsburg’s Viener Cheder. When Talmidim insisted on staying with him at the end of the school year, he moved up with them to 9th grade and then to 10th grade. When 10th grade was over he moved back to Eretz Yisroel.

   His ability to dissect complex subjects into simple ideas was apparent then already. When he learned the Parshios of Vayikra with his young talmidim, (that took 3 years) he taught them the complicated Halachos of Kodshim that he learned while in Brisk.
   When Reb Shlomo later moved back to Eretz Yisrael, settling in Bnei Brak, he was concidred the Mashgiach in about 50 Yeshivas and Kollelim in Eretz Yisroel, he traveled frequently for his Trashos on Tefillah and Emes, and to raise money for many poor families in Eretz Yisrael.

   When the secular United Jewish Appeal foundation once came to Israel to issue grants, he asked the Steipler, Harav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, zt”l, if he should apply.
   “It’s a waste of time,” the Steipler responded. “While most Mosdos have some Sheker involved, I am familiar with all of your causes and they are all 100% pure Emes. And the UJA does not have the Zechus to give to pure Emes.”

   Some of Reb Shlomo’s many Sefarim published include Leil Shimurim on Pesach, Kimu Vekiblu on Purim, a three-volume set on Shir Hashirim based on the Gra, Amalah Shel Torah and many more.

   Reb Shlomo lived a long life, passing away just shy of his 82nd birthday, but he was sick for the past few years. The name Leib was added a few years ago for Arichas Yamim. But he was Niftar in Maimonides Medical Center while on an extended visit to New York, his Rebbetzin and one of his daughters from Yeryshalyim at his bedside.

   The levayah took place at 7:00 last night in Congregation Bnei Yehudah, on 16th avenue and 53rd Street. The Aron was then scheduled to be transported to Eretz Yisrael for Kevurah on the Chelkas Harabbanim on Har Hamenuchos.
   Another levayah is scheduled for 7:00 tonight in Yeshivah Torah Ore in Kiryat Mattesdorf, where his Mechutan Harav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, zt”l, was Rosh Yeshivah.
   Reb Shlomo is survived by his Rebbetzin and six children, Reb Chaike, Reb Velvel, Reb Aharon, Mrs. Rachel Altusky, Mrs. Frume Yasolvsky and Mrs. Estie Druk.

   Yehi Zichro Baruch
   ת נ צ ב ה

7. How horrible!!!!boruch dayan haemes. Not only did we lose a tremendous talmud chochom, but he was a tremendous “Ish Emes”, tremendous “ohev Yisroel” such a modest person, no airs, so available , so real..such a mentsch par excellence…who do we have to learn from now, tisha buv i cant forget his long shiur while we sat for hours on the floor of the shul and he stood for hours! sharing emes with us! we cried together, laughed together, thought together…on my…hashem who will ever be able to fill this void??