Boruch Ber Leibowitz#Works
{{Short description|Belarusian rabbi (1862–1939)}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Boruch Ber Leibowitz
| native-name = ברוך בער לייבאוויץ
| native-name-lang = yi
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| image = File:הרב ברוך דב ליבוביץ מקמניץ.png
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| yeshiva = Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak
| yeshivaposition = Rosh yeshiva
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| main_work = Birkas Shmuel
| predecessor = Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz
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| birth_date = 1862
| birth_place = Slutzk, Belarus
| death_date = 1939
| death_place = Rasein, Lithuania
| yahrtzeit = 'ה' כסלו תש
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| denomination = Orthodox Judaism
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Boruch Ber Leibowitz ({{langx|yi|ברוך בער לייבאוויץ}} {{langx|he|רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ|Boruch Dov Libovitz}}; 1862 – November 17, 1939,{{cite web |title=Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of Kamenitz (1870-1939) |url=https://www.truetorahjews.org/rebboruchber |website=True Torah Jews |accessdate=August 7, 2020}}{{efn|5 Kislev, 5700{{cite web |last1=Edelstein |first1=Rabbi Yitzchak |title=Rabbi Baruch Dov Leibowitz -Head of the Yeshiva of Kamenetz-Litovsk |url=https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Kamenets/kam058.html |website=Jewishgen.org |publisher=JewishGen|accessdate=August 7, 2020 |pages=57–61 |quote=But very quickly he fell ill, and on the fifth of Kislev of the year 5700, he expired...}}}} 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.
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,{{cite web |title=Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz the Birkas Shmuel |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Rav-Boruch-Ber-Leibowitz-the-Birkas-Shmuel/6000000006424271528 |website=Geni.com |accessdate=August 7, 2020}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Rosenblum |first1=Yonasan |title=Reb Yaakov - The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky |date=February 1993 |publisher=Mesorah Publications, Ltd. |isbn=0-89906-413-2 |page=57 |edition=First |chapter=Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka}} During World War I Leibowitz had to leave Slabodka and relocated the yeshiva to Minsk and then to Kremenchug{{cite web |last1=Bobrowski-Aloni |first1=Leah |title=The "Knesset Beit Yitzhak" Yeshiva |url=https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Kamenets/kam058.html |website=Jewishgen.com |publisher=JewishGen|accessdate=August 6, 2020 |location=Tel Aviv, Israel |page=61}} and Vilna. In 1926 he re-established the yeshiva in Kaminetz,{{cite book |last1=Wein |first1=Berel |authorlink1=Berel Wein |title=Faith & Fate: The Story of the Jewish People in the Twentieth Century |date=November 8, 2001 |publisher=Shaar Press |location=Brooklyn, NY |isbn=9781578195930}} where it continued to attract hundreds of students for the next 13 years.
In May 1928, 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 Boruch Ber with a symbolic key to the city. “Rabbi Leibowitz disproves Darwin’s Theory of Evolution,” exclaimed the Mayor.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part I|url=https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/unfathomable-greatness-the-life-times-of-rav-boruch-ber/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}} “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 lecture at the national convention of the Agudath Harabanim in Belmar, NJ{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Unfathomable Greatness: The Life & Times of Rav Boruch Ber Part III|url=https://jsoundbites.podbean.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716143649/http://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ |archive-date=2020-07-16 |access-date=|website=}} and at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary{{Cite web|last=Scarr|first=Cindy|date=2020-07-15|title=Rav Boruch Ber's Hesped on East Broadway|url=https://mishpacha.com/rov-boruch-bers-hesped-on-east-broadway/|access-date=2021-06-09|website=Mishpacha Magazine|language=en-US}}
In 1939, shortly before his death, he fled with the yeshiva to a suburb of Vilna,{{cite book |last1=Wein |first1=Berel |authorlink1=Berel Wein |title=Triumph of Survival |date=October 1990 |publisher=Shaar Press |location=Brooklyn, NY |isbn=1-4226-1514-6 |page=355 |edition=First |chapter=Hitler's War Against the Jews}}{{cite book |last1=Eliach |first1=Rabbi Dov |title=Tales of Devotion |date=2016 |chapter=You Kept Me from Death; You Rescued Me from the Pit - Based on Conversations with Rav Eliyahu Dolinsky |page=361}} hoping to escape from the Nazis and the communists. He is buried at the Zaretcha cemetery, Vilna. His grave was identified in 2012.{{cite web |title=The Life and Torah of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz |url=https://jewishhomela.com/2014/12/08/the-life-and-torah-of-reb-boruch-ber-leibowitz/ |website=Jewishhomela.com |publisher=Jewish Home LA |accessdate=August 7, 2020 |date=December 8, 2015}}
Family
His daughter married Reb Reuven Grozovsky,{{cite book |last1=Rosenblum |first1=Yonasan |title=Reb Yaakov - The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky |date=February 1993 |publisher=Mesorah Publications, Ltd. |isbn=0-89906-413-2 |page=57 |edition=First |chapter=Chapter 2 - The Meaning of Slabodka |quote=He once said of his son-in-law Reb Reuven Grozovsky....}} 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.{{cite web |title=Hagaon Harav Chaim Shlomo Leibowitz, zt"l, R"Y; Yeshivas Ponevezh, Yeshivas Kamenitz |url=https://hamodia.com/2016/02/27/hagaon-harav-chaim-shlomo-leibowitz-ztl-rosh-yeshivah-yeshivas-ponevezh-and-yeshivas-kamenitz/ |website=Hamodia.com |publisher=Hamodia |accessdate=August 7, 2020 |date=February 27, 2016 |quote=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.}}
- Shiurei Reb Baruch Ber (Lectures of Reb Boruch Ber) - recorded and published by his students.
Notes
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References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080212081101/http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/pages/t043/t04380.html Boruch Ber Leibowitz]
{{Pre-World War II European Yeshivos}}
{{Volozhin Yeshiva}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leibowitz, Boruch Ber}}
Category:People from Slutsky Uyezd
Category:Belarusian Haredi rabbis
Category:Haredi rabbis in Europe
Category:Hebrew-language writers
Category:Authors of works on the Talmud