My Neighbor, My Teacher   

In tribute to Rav Noach Heisler ztz”l

One can command respect for being powerful or intimidating, for being wealthy, or for being “the smartest person in the room.” But while Rav Noach Heisler ztz”l, the recently departed rav of Sanhedria Murchevet was certainly knowledgeable and, indeed, commanded respect just for coming into the room, there was something more.

There was an aura about Rav Heisler, something akin to a holiness and a gentleness, a sense of coming from a different world, of living on a higher plane. He was stately and derived his quiet charisma from his vast Torah knowledge.

The Heislers were our neighbors for a decade, beginning in the early 70s. Rav Heisler was completing his dayanus tests then, and relished showing us his scores, always A+. Somehow, though, this didn’t detract from his humility. He could speak strongly when the occasion demanded, but it wasn’t Rav Noach Heisler being forceful. It was the Torah which spoke through him.

Rav Heisler became the community rabbi of Sanhedria Murchevet, then a new neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, a year or two after it opened in late 1972. His knowledge more than qualified him for the position, but a noble soul isn’t always temperamentally suited for the rough and tumble of politics that could erupt in a new neighborhood. Here though, it was precisely his refined character that attracted a coterie of admirers and disciples, that had them singing “Or zaru’a latzaddik” on the way home from a very long, very animated and elevated Simchas Torah.

Our families were close. Most of our children were younger than his, and our daughters looked up to his daughters, who were role models of friendliness, piety, humility, and learning. They were all very skilled, as were his sons. Decades later, when we met Rav Heisler’s son Meir, who had since become an esteemed dayan on Rav Nissim Karelitz’s beis din, the years fell away in an instant.