Remembering the Bostoner Rebbe of Beit Shemesh
Photo: Mattis Goldberg
It was Simchas Torah and we chassidei Boston were dancing joyfully with the Torah. Suddenly the Bostoner Rebbe of Beit Shemesh Rav Chaim Avraham HaLevi Horowitz ztz”l called us over. We all gathered around the Rebbe and to our astonishment we saw him weeping.
In a choked voice he said “We just experienced the ‘heilige teg’ — we had Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur and Succos and now we are dancing with the Torah.” The Rebbe then burst out in uncontrollable sobbing and continued “We are dancing joyfully with the heilige Torah but there are thousands of Yiddishe neshamos who don’t even know the meaning of Shema Yisrael.”
The Rebbe who passed away last Thursday was a link to the previous generations. He was the last Jew alive who was born in the town of Zidichov. He was one of the first chassidishe bochurim to learn with Rav Aharon Kotler ztz”l in Lakewood. He was close with the Satmar Rebbe Rav Yoel Teitelbaum ztz”l; and a talmid muvhak of his father Rav Moshe Horowitz ztz”l the Bostoner Rebbe of New York and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America.
He had tremendous hakaras hatov and a true sense of what davening b’tzibbur meant and his koach haneginah linked him to the Leviim in the Beis Hamikdash. He had prodigious ahavas haTorah and he felt the deep pain of Shechinta b’galusa in a real way.
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