Boruch Ber Leibowitz

Boruch Ber Leibowitz (Yiddish: ברוך בער לייבאוויץ Hebrew: רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ, romanized: Boruch Dov Libovitz; 1862 – November 17, 1939[1][lower-alpha 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.

Rabbi
Boruch Ber Leibowitz
ברוך בער לייבאוויץ
Personal
Born1862
Slutzk, Belarus
Died1939
Rasein, Lithuania
ReligionJudaism
DenominationOrthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
PredecessorRabbi Chaim Rabinowitz
PositionRosh yeshiva
YeshivaYeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak
Main workBirkas Shmuel
Yahrtzeit'ה' כסלו תש
BuriedVilna, Lithuania

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,[3] 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.[4] During World War I Leibowitz had to leave Slabodka and relocated the yeshiva to Minsk and then to Kremenchug[5] and Vilna. In 1926 he re-established the yeshiva in Kaminetz,[6] where it continued to attract hundreds of students for the next 13 years.

In May of 1928, Rav 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 Rav Boruch Ber with a symbolic key to the city. “Rabbi Leibowitz disproves Darwin’s Theory of Evolution,” exclaimed the Mayor.[7] “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 Shiur at the national convention of the Agudath Harabanim in Belmar, NJ[8] and at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary[9]

In 1939, shortly before his death, he fled with the yeshiva to a suburb of Vilna,[10][11] hoping to escape from the Nazis and the communists. He is buried at the Zaretcha cemetery, Vilna. His grave was identified in 2012.[12]

Children and Notable Relatives

His daughter married Reb Reuven Grozovsky,[13] 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
  • Birkas Shmuel (The Blessing of Shmuel), his magnum opus, named in memory of his father, Shmuel David Leibowitz. This work includes many otherwise unrecorded teachings of Chaim Soloveitchik, as well as Leibowitz's novel understandings of Torah topics on the Talmud published from his manuscripts by his nephew and longtime student, Chaim Shalom Leibowitz.[14]
  • Shiurei Reb Baruch Ber (Lectures of Reb Boruch Ber) - recorded and published by his students.

Notes
  1. 5 Kislev, 5700[2]

References
  1. "Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of Kamenitz (1870-1939)". True Torah Jews. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  2. Edelstein, Rabbi Yitzchak. "Rabbi Baruch Dov Leibowitz -Head of the Yeshiva of Kamenetz-Litovsk". Jewishgen.org. JewishGen. p. 57-61. Retrieved August 7, 2020. But very quickly he fell ill, and on the fifth of Kislev of the year 5700, he expired...
  3. "Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz the Birkas Shmuel". Geni.com. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  4. Rosenblum, Yonasan (February 1993). "Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka". Reb Yaakov - The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (First ed.). Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 0-89906-413-2.
  5. Bobrowski-Aloni, Leah. "The "Knesset Beit Yitzhak" Yeshiva". Jewishgen.com. Tel Aviv, Israel: JewishGen. p. 61. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  6. Wein, Berel (November 8, 2001). Faith & Fate: The Story of the Jewish People in the Twentieth Century. Brooklyn, NY: Shaar Press. ISBN 9781578195930.
  7. "Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part I".
  8. "Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part III". Archived from the original on 2020-07-16.
  9. Scarr, Cindy (2020-07-15). "Rav Boruch Ber's Hesped on East Broadway". Mishpacha Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  10. Wein, Berel (October 1990). "Hitler's War Against the Jews". Triumph of Survival (First ed.). Brooklyn, NY: Shaar Press. p. 355. ISBN 1-4226-1514-6.
  11. Eliach, Rabbi Dov (2016). "You Kept Me from Death; You Rescued Me from the Pit - Based on Conversations with Rav Eliyahu Dolinsky". Tales of Devotion. p. 361.
  12. "The Life and Torah of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz". Jewishhomela.com. Jewish Home LA. December 8, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  13. Rosenblum, Yonasan (February 1993). "Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka". Reb Yaakov - The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (First ed.). Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 0-89906-413-2. He once said of his son-in-law Reb Reuven Grozovsky....
  14. "Hagaon Harav Chaim Shlomo Leibowitz, zt"l, R"Y; Yeshivas Ponevezh, Yeshivas Kamenitz". Hamodia.com. Hamodia. February 27, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2020. 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.
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