YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Rebbitzen Sara Finkel A”H, who was the mother of the late Mir Yerushalayim Rosh Hayeshiva, Hagaon HaRav Noson Tzvi, ZATZAL. She was approximately 101.

The Rebbitzen, a’h, was clear-headed until her last day and living at her home in Gush Shemonim, where she collapsed before her death. Rescue forces performed resuscitation but ultimately were forced to declare her death.

The nifteres was born in Poland, to her father, HaRav Shmuel Rosenbloom, a Gerrer chassid, and moved with her family to the States when she was one year old. She married Rav Eliyahu Meir Finkel, a great-grandson of the Alter of Slabodka. They originally lived in Detroit and moved to Chicago in 1947 and opened a catering business, which they successfully operated for decades.

The Finkels made the move to Eretz Yisroel in 1962.

She maintained her home on Rechov Givat Moshe in Gush Shemonim as an open house, always setting her Shabbos table with extra settings for any guests that may show up at the last minute. She was known as a tremendous ba’alas chessed and was involved in connecting needy families with complex medical needs with ba’alei tzedaka.

She left behind doros yesharim, including her son HaGaon Rav Gedalia, her grandson, Rosh Yeshivas Mir HaGaon Rav Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The first part of the popular Artscroll book “Rav Nosson Tzvi” was written by Rebbitzen Sara Finkel, who was a noted and beloved personality as well as a gifted writer. Her writings in the book share her memories of a beloved son whom she nurtured and watched grow into a Gadol Ha’dor.

The Levaya will tentatively take place in front of the Mir Yerushalayim Yeshiva today, Wednesday, at 1:00 PM.

אבל בישיבת מיר: הרבנית שרה פינקל ע"ה שציירה את כל גדולי ישראל הלכה לעולמה בשיבה טובה בגיל 101 >> https://t.co/AcNMmMinoe pic.twitter.com/e8dwgMXqxO

— משה ויסברג (@moshe_nayes) August 25, 2021

The following excerpt by Rebbetzin Sara Finkel from Rav Nosson Tzvi (Artscroll) appeared in Mishpacha Magazine:

“In the year 1957, before Rosh Hashanah, my husband and I took a trip to Eretz Yisrael. We took along Nosson Tzvi, who was 14 years old at the time. We travelled by boat, cabin class, to Paris, then we flew to the Holy Land by plane. Young Nosson Tzvi was just as eager as we were to visit Eretz Yisrael—to see the holy sights, to visit family, and to simply bask in the kedushah of the land of our forefathers.

For me, coming to Israel was a completely new experience As we visited my husband’s uncles, aunts, and cousins, I felt like a bride meeting my husband’s family for the first time—and a very illustrious family they were…especially Rav Leizer Yudel Finkel zt”l, my husband’s revered and beloved uncle who headed the Mir Yeshiva in Poland and reestablished it in Jerusalem in 1944…

It was the day before Rosh Hashanah during that fateful first visit to Eretz Yisrael. I recall the Uncle (that’s how my husband referred to him), Rav Leizer Yudel, summoning me to his room to speak with me concerning a serious decision I had to make. He asked me in Yiddish to leave my son Nosson Tzvi in Eretz Yisrael to study in his yeshiva, the Mir. Before uttering a reply I thought to myself, What, leave my son, at the tender age of 14, across the ocean, thousands of miles away from home without his parents and his younger brother? How could I possibly do such a thing? When I hesitated he added, with a warm smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, “Du darfst hobben em unter dine fachtug?- Do you need him attached to your apron strings?” To which I answered in Yiddish, the language I learned from my parents as a youngster growing up in St. Paul, “I will have to think about it.” I repeated, “I will think it over,” and I thought to myself, How can I leave him behind?

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah after Shachris, following the reading in Parashas Vayeira that narrates the moving story of Akeidas Yitzchak…I thought to myself, If your patriarch, Avraham Avinu, was willing to bring such a korban, to make such a profound sacrifice, why am I hesitating? It was precisely at that moment that I made my decision, which I later related to “the Uncle,” Rav Leizer Yudel: “I will permit Nosson Tzvi to remain in Eretz Yisrael.” I somehow felt at the time that I was giving him to the world; what a thought for a young Jewish mother.

My beloved son Nosson Tzvi zt”l came into the Mir, into the world of Torah learning, at the reading of Parashas Vayeira on Rosh Hashanah, and he left this world, and the Mir, also during the week of Parashas Vayeira. I often wonder what significance this amazing occurrence might have. Certainly, it cannot be a mere coincidence.”

Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)