Following a 7 am shacharis on Wednesday morning in Australia, the legendary 102-year-old Reb Berysz Aurbach completed a siyum on masechtas Taanis to absolve him and others in attendance of the requirement of taanis bechorim on erev Pesach.

Born in 1920, Berish comes from a chasidic family which had lived in the Polish town of Biala Podlaska for hundreds of years, which is known for its connection to the Gerrer chasidus.

Berish had three older brothers and a sister, as well as a half-brother from his father’s second marriage. His family life was comfortable, and to this day he can recall the Torah that he learned as a youth in his local Polish Talmud Torah.

He was one of the last people to be smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto just prior to Pesach 1943 and shortly before the uprising which led to its extermination at the hands of the Nazis. Aside from his sister who had immigrated to Palestine before the war, all of Berish’s family members were killed in the Holocaust.

Realizing he had nobody left in Poland, Berish contacted an uncle who lived in Australia, who sponsored his visa, allowing him to start a new life on safe shores.

For the past several years, Reb Berysz has made headline news across the globe as he davened maariv on his mother’s yahrtzeit – more than a century after she was nifteres!

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)