Boruch Ber Leibowitz Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Rabbi
Boruch Ber Leibowitz
Native-Name:ברוך בער לייבאוויץ
Native-Name-Lang:yi
Yeshiva:Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak
Yeshivaposition:Rosh yeshiva
Main Work:Birkas Shmuel
Predecessor:Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz
Birth Date:1862
Birth Place:Slutzk, Belarus
Death Date:1939
Death Place:Rasein, Lithuania
Yahrtzeit:'ה' כסלו תש
Buried:Vilna, Lithuania
Denomination:Orthodox Judaism

Boruch Ber Leibowitz (Yiddish: ברוך בער לייבאוויץ Hebrew: רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ|Boruch Dov Libovitz; 1862  - November 17, 1939,[1] known as Reb Boruch Ber, was a rabbi famed for his Talmudic lectures, particularly in that they were rooted styled in the method of his teacher Chaim Soloveitchik. He is known for leading Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Slabodka and Kaminetz.

Biography

Boruch Dov Leibowitz was born in Slutsk and was known as a prodigy at a very young age. He was sent to learn in Volozhin yeshiva, where he quickly attached himself to his main teacher, Chaim Soloveitchik,[2] striving to completely adopt his unique Talmudic approach, which was the foundation of the popular Brisker method.

He then married the daughter of Abraham Isaac Zimmerman, whom he succeeded as rabbi of Halusk. He also served as a pulpit rabbi for other communities. In 1904 he was appointed head of the Kneseth Beis Yitzchak Yeshiva in Slobodka.[3] During World War I Leibowitz had to leave Slabodka and relocated the yeshiva to Minsk and then to Kremenchug[4] and Vilna. In 1926 he re-established the yeshiva in Kaminetz,[5] where it continued to attract hundreds of students for the next 13 years.

In May 1928, Boruch Ber traveled to America together with his son in law Reb Reuven Grozovsky to raise funds for his Yeshiva. New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker presented Boruch Ber with a symbolic key to the city. “Rabbi Leibowitz disproves Darwin’s Theory of Evolution,” exclaimed the Mayor.[6] “Only a God could have created such a person!” While in the US, he visited cities from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to Detroit and Boston as well as smaller Jewish enclaves such as Albany, NY and Harrisburg, PA. He also delivered a lecture at the national convention of the Agudath Harabanim in Belmar, NJ[7] and at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary[8]

In 1939, shortly before his death, he fled with the yeshiva to a suburb of Vilna,[9] [10] hoping to escape from the Nazis and the communists. He is buried at the Zaretcha cemetery, Vilna. His grave was identified in 2012.[11]

Children and Notable Relatives

His daughter married Reb Reuven Grozovsky,[12] who was rosh hayeshiva of Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn and Bais Medrash Elyon in Monsey

His nephew was Talmudical Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman of the Hebrew Theological College.

Rabbi Leibowitz's granddaughter (Rabbi Bernstein's daughter) married Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner.

Works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of Kamenitz (1870-1939) . True Torah Jews . August 7, 2020.
  2. Web site: Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz the Birkas Shmuel . Geni.com . August 7, 2020.
  3. Book: Rosenblum . Yonasan . . February 1993 . Mesorah Publications, Ltd. . 0-89906-413-2 . 57 . First . Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka.
  4. Web site: Bobrowski-Aloni . Leah . The "Knesset Beit Yitzhak" Yeshiva . Jewishgen.com . JewishGen. August 6, 2020 . . 61.
  5. Book: Wein . Berel . Berel Wein . Faith & Fate: The Story of the Jewish People in the Twentieth Century . November 8, 2001 . Shaar Press . Brooklyn, NY . 9781578195930.
  6. Web site: Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part I.
  7. Web site: Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part III. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200716143649/http://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ . 2020-07-16 .
  8. Web site: Scarr. Cindy. 2020-07-15. Rav Boruch Ber's Hesped on East Broadway. 2021-06-09. Mishpacha Magazine. en-US.
  9. Book: Wein . Berel . Berel Wein . Triumph of Survival . October 1990 . Shaar Press . Brooklyn, NY . 1-4226-1514-6 . 355 . First . Hitler's War Against the Jews.
  10. Book: Eliach . Rabbi Dov . Tales of Devotion . 2016 . You Kept Me from Death; You Rescued Me from the Pit - Based on Conversations with Rav Eliyahu Dolinsky . 361.
  11. Web site: The Life and Torah of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz . Jewishhomela.com . Jewish Home LA . August 7, 2020 . December 8, 2015.
  12. Book: Rosenblum . Yonasan . . February 1993 . Mesorah Publications, Ltd. . 0-89906-413-2 . 57 . First . Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka . He once said of his son-in-law Reb Reuven Grozovsky.....
  13. Web site: Hagaon Harav Chaim Shlomo Leibowitz, zt"l, R"Y; Yeshivas Ponevezh, Yeshivas Kamenitz . Hamodia.com . Hamodia . August 7, 2020 . February 27, 2016 . His father, Harav Yaakov Moshe, was the son of Hagaon Harav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, zt”l, famed Rosh Yeshivah of Kamenitz and author of Birkas Shmuel on Shas..