With the news literally spreading around the globe in a matter of seconds, there are many members of the press waiting outside the room where the posek hador was admitted for over six months. Most of the rabbonim and family members who were at the rav’s bedside are still inside the room. HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Aurbach has left the room and is in an elevator on his way out of the hospital.

The most seasoned chareidi radio broadcasters are looking for the appropriate words, simply speechless with the reality that the pillar of torah for over a century is not longer among us, leaving Am Yisrael orphans as we face a most critical juncture in Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbonim leaving the eighth floor are not talking, but their eyes communicate a powerful message, one of pain, fear, and simply the understanding of the profound loss Am Yisrael has just suffered.

Rav Binyomin Fisher simply uttered “Baruch Dayan Emmes’, then explaining somewhat the magnitude of the loss for Am Yisrael worldwide.

Rabbi Eliyahu Schlesinger, Rav/Posek of the Jerusalem Rabbanut and Rav of Gilo stated questions how we will continue in the darkness that has just befallen the Jewish People as “we have just lost our king, our leader”. The rav explains that everyone accepted his word, “All the gedolei hador, Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike. That which came out of his words were for us, this generation, somewhat likes the words utter at Har Sinai”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)