Rabbi Eliezer Geldzahler was one of those rare blends – scholarly, devoted, determined, tuned-in, unpretentious, grateful, and selfless. When he passed away at age 46 after a tragic accident in 2004, he left his large family and hundreds of talmidim with an irreplaceable void. In a soon-to-be released book, Reb Leizer: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Eliezer Geldzahler, Mishpacha’s Yisroel Besser brings to life the passionate rosh yeshivah and educational innovator.
A family’s private grief versus the public benefit of sharing a story. So how does one know when to break the veil of privacy and when to keep that sorrow buried deep in the recesses of the soul?
The life story of an individual great as he may have been isn’t always suitable for the wider community. Fascinating as an account may be in order to make it worthy of exposure it must be relevant to the readers.
The story of our son-in-law Rav Eliezer Geldzahler is significant for all kinds of Jews in all sorts of places. Reb Leizer was defined by his willingness to constantly revisit old assumptions and to reexamine conventional wisdom. Both as a parent and as an educator he was always seeking to make things more exciting and was never stuck in a rut.
Yisroel Besser’s full-length work has its roots in a yahrtzeit tribute that he wrote for Mishpacha in Kislev 2008. After we saw the impact the article had on Jews everywhere we decided that Reb Leizer’s message of varemkeit and enthusiasm for Yiddishkeit and life itself should be made known to the wider community.
Create a free account to keep reading.
