Twenty-two years after the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s passing, and half a century removed from the penniless, orphaned war refugee, Rabbi Yitzchok Raitport is still a humble talmid
Rabbi Yitzchok Raitport presenting another newly written sefer to the Rebbe. Regarding the Rebbe’s one-time haskamah “The one I gave Raitport is my personal matter”
When Rabbi Yitzchok Raitport came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s beis medrash in the 1950s he was a penniless orphaned war refugee. But he was also a brilliant Torah scholar who under the Rebbe’s personal guidance became a prolific author and — with the subsequent windfall blessing of wealth — a generous benefactor. Twenty-two years after the Rebbe’s passing he’s still a humble talmid.
Rabbi Yitzchok Raitport is a man of contrasts. With his encyclopedic mind and incredible hasmadah in learning he’s one of the great talmidei chachamim of the generation. Yet despite his classic multivolume commentary on Rambam the dozens of kuntreisim he’s authored and the halachic arbitrations he’s issued he’s never run after the title of “gadol” — and if you’re not a Chabad chassid or you don’t live in Brooklyn chances are you never even heard of him.
Unless you happen to be a fundraiser. Because Rabbi Raitport who for years struggled to feed his family and literally fulfilled the dictum of the Sages to acquire Torah through unadorned bread and measured water has also been blessed with major wealth. He’s one of the greatest benefactors of mikvaos (he’s built over 120 of them around the world) finances the publications of many struggling Torah authors and supports dozens of institutions.
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