Rav Avrohom Borenstein
The Avnei Nezer, a leading posek of his generation and founder of the Sochatchover dynasty, known for his Torah learning and for his responsa.
Biography
Early years
Rav Avrohom Borenstein zy"a, the Avnei Nezer and first Sochatchover Rebbe, was born in Bendin, Poland, in 1838. He was a descendant of the Ramah and the Shach, and the first child of Rav Zev Nachum Borenstein and Dobrish Erlich. Rav Zev Nachum served as rav of Elkush from 1849 to 1855 and of Biala Podlaska from 1855 until his passing in 1885. He was the author of Agudas Eizov and a chassid of the Kotzker Rebbe.
Years before his bar mitzvah, Avrohom was recognized as a Torah genius, with a phenomenal memory. His father taught him the ways of pilpul, and at the age of ten he began to write his own chiddushim.
His health was frail from childhood, and he suffered especially from his lungs. Once, when he fell dangerously ill, the doctors forbade him to strain his mind in Torah study. The Kotzker Rebbe gave him a blessing for long life, and it was fulfilled, for he lived to the age of seventy-one.
Torah and leadership
In his teens he became a close talmid of the Kotzker Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, who chose him as a son-in-law. In 1853 he married the Rebbe's daughter, Sara Tzina, and the couple lived in Kotzk for seven years, until the Kotzker's passing in 1859. He learned with his father-in-law almost daily in those years. He was known to sleep only two hours a day and to give the rest of his waking hours to Torah. Their only son, Shmuel, was born in Kotzk in 1857.
After the Kotzker's passing he became a chassid of Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter, the Chidushei HaRim of Ger. After the Chidushei HaRim's passing in 1866 he followed Rav Chanoch Heynekh of Alexander.
In 1863 he accepted his first rabbinic post, as rav of Parczew. In 1867 he left because of persecution by those who opposed him and became Av Beis Din of Krushnevitz, where he founded a yeshivah gedolah. It drew many outstanding talmidim, among them future leaders of the Torah world: Rav Meir Don Plotski, the Kli Chemdah, Rav Yoav Yehoshua Weingarten, the Chelkas Yoav of Kintsk, and Rav Shaul Moshe Zilberman, the Vershover Rov. He learned with his talmidim eight hours every day and gave several shiurim daily. In his introduction to Eglei Tal he writes that he gave all his energy to teaching his talmidim and left the publication of his chiddushim for his old age.
When Rav Chanoch Heynekh of Alexander passed away in 1870, he agreed to serve as a Rebbe on one condition, that his regular shiurim and learning schedule not be interrupted. He also insisted that only those well versed in Torah should visit his court. After a time his chassidim noticed that he answered each person briefly and did not spend much time with them. When they asked about this, he explained that every second he was taken from his learning, those who came lost something at home, so brief audiences were to their benefit.
In 1876 he moved to Nasielsk after the passing of its rav, Rav Shmuel Shinover, author of Romosayim Tzofim. There too he met opposition from those who wanted him to relax his insistence on long-standing traditions and minhagim. When the community of Sochatchov asked him to be their Rav and Rebbe, he gladly accepted. He moved there in 1883 and served as Av Beis Din until his passing. The chassidus he founded took its name from the town, and he became known as the Sochatchover Rebbe.
He would have wanted nothing more than to continue his regular schedule of learning and teaching in Sochatchov, but his fame spread quickly. Rabbonim and scholars throughout Europe sent him difficult halachic questions, and he became known as one of the leading poskim of his era. To reach a psak he first studied the sugya in the Gemara in depth, then the explanations of the Rishonim, and only then formed his decision. His responsa also reflect his humility. Although others relied on his rulings completely, in some cases he wrote that one should not rely on his psak unless another posek ruled the same way.
Teachings and seforim
His responsa, covering all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch, were published after his passing in seven volumes by his son and grandson as Shu"t Avnei Nezer, and it was after his passing that he became known by that name. His other works include Eglei Tal on the thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos, unpublished seforim of Chassidus, and many manuscripts, including chiddushim on the Rambam. Many of his Torah sayings to his chassidim appear in his son's sefer, Shem MiShmuel.
The discourses he delivered on Shabbos were collected and printed after the Holocaust, in two parts, together with the Torah thoughts of his successors as Sochatchover Rebbes, in the sefer Ne'os Deshe. His biography, Abir HaRo'im, was published in Pyetrkov in 1935, and his chiddushim on the Gemara, arranged by tractate, are now being edited.
Later years and passing
In his later years the Avnei Nezer suffered from a heavy cough, a result of his weak lungs. He passed away on 11 Adar I 5670 (7 February 1910) and was buried in an ohel in Sochatchov.
He was succeeded as Av Beis Din of Sochatchov and as Sochatchover Rebbe by his only son, Rav Shmuel, the Shem MiShmuel. When the Shem MiShmuel passed away in 1926 he was buried in the same ohel as his father. The Avnei Nezer also had a daughter, Esther, who married his younger brother, Rav Meir Bornsztain.
Legacy
The Sochatchover dynasty continues today, and the yeshivah Avnei Nezer DeSochatchov operates in Yerushalayim under Rav Moshe Betzalel Weinberg.
During World War II the Nazis tore up the headstones of the cemetery where the Avnei Nezer and the Shem MiShmuel were buried and threw them into the river. The ohel was destroyed with the rest of the cemetery, which became a bare field. Under Communism it was used as a soccer field and a garbage dump, and Sochatchover chassidim who tried to find the ohel and the graves did not succeed.
In 1991, after the fall of Communism, Rav Yehuda Vidavski, a Sochatchover chassid from Lodz who now lived in Tel Aviv, set out to find and restore the ohel. He obtained permission from the local authorities to fence the original cemetery and asked Rav Aharon Yisroel Bornsztain, a son of the Shem MiShmuel who also lived in Tel Aviv, where the ohel had been. Rav Aharon Yisroel recalled that it was thirty-five meters from the entrance to the cemetery, but digging there uncovered nothing, and a professional with machines to locate graves also failed.
Then Rav Vidavski found an older woman who had lived in the area all her life. When he brought her to the cemetery, she looked around at the digging and said, "Why are they looking there, when the tzaddik is buried here?" When the workers dug in the place she pointed out, they found remnants of wooden boards, which proved to be the grave of the Avnei Nezer, and beside them pieces of wood from the grave of the Shem MiShmuel. The graves were restored and a new ohel was built over them. In 1993 the Sochatchover Rebbe traveled from Eretz Yisroel to Poland to lead the ceremony that inaugurated it.
Stories
The Broken Shidduch
It is told that a chassid from Warsaw, whom everyone nicknamed Der Kleine Moisheleh, made a shidduch for his daughter. Soon afterward they discovered that the chosson had a lung disease, and when the kallah learned of it, she refused to continue. Her father received permission from a bais din to dissolve the shidduch. But when the chosson heard of it, he suffered such great distress that his anguish made his illness worse. He declined from day to day, until at last he died, sick and heartbroken.
Afterward the former kallah also fell ill. As she lay in her sickbed she complained that the departed spirit of her former chosson kept watch at her side, constantly urging her to follow him and saying that he was taking her to court, to the Bais Din Shel Maalah, the Heavenly Court. This continued for some days and her condition worsened, until her father was worried and the doctors began to despair. Her father traveled to Sochatchov to the Avnei Nezer.
When the Rebbe heard how the departed chosson stood by her bed and summoned her to a din Torah in Shomayim, he grew excited. "The halachah is that whoever sues in bais din must follow the defendant to the defendant's own bais din, in his own place. Go home and tell your daughter in my name that if the departed chosson returns, she should tell him that in Sochatchov they say that if he has any claim against her, it need not go before the Bais Din Shel Maalah. Let him bring her to a din Torah right here with me in Sochatchov. She should repeat this to him three times."
She did exactly this, and after the third time he never returned. She recovered and never saw him again.
The Rebbe's Ahavas Yisroel
Rav Moshe Duvid'l once took the place of the usual shamash, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok, who had been called to Warsaw on an important matter, and he attended to the Avnei Nezer's needs. One morning, very early, the Avnei Nezer came to him and said, "Quickly, bring me water to wash, and hurry. Now the air is pure, free of all sins and crimes and worldly desires. It is a precious time to learn Torah. See that no one disturbs me. Even if a man comes with a golden crown, do not bring him to me."
The Tzaddik sat down to learn, aflame with the fire of Torah. Soon a man in modern dress, clean-shaven and wearing a short jacket, arrived and asked to see the Rebbe. Moshe Duvid'l laughed at him. "You want to see the Rebbe now?" The Rebbe had expressly forbidden him to let anyone in. The visitor offered Moshe Duvid'l fifteen gold rubles for his trouble, a vast sum. Reb Moshe Duvid'l was struck with awe. He took the gold fifteen-ruble coin, went into the Rebbe's study, told the Tzaddik what had happened, and showed him the coin he stood to earn.
The Rebbe wondered aloud, "What, you can earn such a sum through me? Bring him in. But remember, three minutes and no more." Reb Moshe Duvid'l pocketed the coin and brought the visitor in. After about ten minutes he could no longer hold back and came in to take the man out. What he heard was the Rebbe telling the man, "Remember to fulfill these three things that I said, and she will have a yeshuah." The man left, and that was that.
One day Moshe Duvid'l was in Kalisch when a bearded Jew in a long coat, a stranger, approached him. "Do you come from Sochatchov?" he asked. "Yes." "And do you sometimes attend to the Rebbe?" "Yes," answered the bewildered Moshe Duvid'l, whose wonder grew when the man warmly grasped him and said, "Then you must come to my house to celebrate with us and enjoy a fine meal."
The man led him home, and when they entered he told his wife to quickly prepare a lavish feast. "Prepare a seudah for the man who saved your life. Here he is." The bearded man in the long coat was the same man who had once come beardless in a short jacket and paid Moshe Duvid'l handsomely to see the Rebbe. He explained that his wife had been very sick, almost at death's door, and he had traveled to Sochatchov to seek the Rebbe's blessing and advice. Among the three things the Tzaddik told them to do to save her life was to move all their children out of the modern schools and into the traditional cheder. At first his wife resisted, but eventually she agreed, and as soon as she did she got better and better. "And now she is perfectly healthy." They gave Moshe Duvid'l a generous gift and sent him off to Kalisch in style.
The author of Abir HaRo'im concludes that this shows how great the Rebbe's ahavas Yisroel was. So that Moshe Duvid'l could earn a handsome sum, the Tzaddik gave up a few precious minutes of his holy morning learning.
The Rebbe's Learning and the Rain
Rav Gronim of Gur, the baal koreh for the Sefas Emes, once told of a visit to the Avnei Nezer for Sukkos, when the Rebbe still lived in Kroshnivitz. He was the Rebbe's guest and slept in the Rebbe's sukkah.
"The Rebbe himself made my bed and patted down the sheets and blankets to make sure I would be comfortable and warm. I lay down to sleep, and the Rebbe sat down to learn, aflame with excitement and hislahavus. He kept checking to see whether I was asleep, so I pretended to sleep. Just then torrential rain began to fall. It was so strong and beat so hard against the sukkah that the floor was soon full of water. I peeked out and saw the Rebbe go to the window of the sukkah and open it. He called out, 'What chutzpah these clouds have, that they dare disturb my learning.' No sooner had the Tzaddik said this than the rain stopped and the clouds ended their downpour."
This shows how precious the Tzaddik's Torah study was in Heaven.
A Gifted Son
The Avnei Nezer's father, Rav Zev Nachum, was the rav in Biala. His future father-in-law, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, once revealed to Rav Zev Nachum how he merited such a holy son. It was Purim, and all over the world the Jews were rejoicing. Even the greatest lomdim, who were always sitting and learning, were busy with the preparations and joyful business of Purim, and no one was learning Torah. No one, that is, except Rav Zev Nachum. Since the world cannot exist without Torah, Rav Zev Nachum was at that time supporting the entire world.
Meanwhile in Heaven there was a great uproar, for no one was learning Torah, until they saw Rav Zev Nachum. It was decided on high that his reward would be a gifted son, a child whose light of Torah would illuminate the entire world that he had saved. This was why his firstborn son was the Avnei Nezer. So the Kotzker revealed.
Even in his youth the Avnei Nezer's power in Torah was apparent. He was once learning in the bais medrash when a crowd of weeping Jews came in. They began to recite Tehillim tearfully and to daven for the recovery of a terribly sick Jew whose end was near, hoping that Heaven would have mercy. Their cries and loud tefillos disturbed his learning. "Listen," he told them, "if you promise to daven quietly and not disturb my study, I promise you that he will recover." The crowd listened to the young scholar, and the dying man recovered.
A Son-in-Law for the Kotzker
The Divrei Chaim of Sanz tested the young genius as a possible match for his daughter. Afterward he remarked, "He learns like the Noda BiYehuda, but I cannot take him as a chosson for my daughter. He is too sharp for me." The Kotzker Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel, the Seraf of Kotzk, took him as a son-in-law instead. As the young man stood under the chuppah, the Kotzker said, "May it be Your will, Hashem, that his sick, weak body be able to hold such a great, brilliant mind."
Not long after the wedding, the Kotzker's daughter Sora, the Avnei Nezer's wife, burst into her father's home, crying uncontrollably. Between sobs she explained that her young husband had contracted pneumonia and was coughing up blood. "There is no need to worry," the Kotzker told her. "He will live a long life. He is named Avrohom and you are Sora, and the verse says, 'Avrohom and Sora were old, coming along in days.'"
The blessing was fulfilled until the age of seventy-two, when the Avnei Nezer's Rebbetzin passed away. He then grew weak and sick, and he understood that because his father-in-law had blessed him through this verse, his life was bound to Sora's. Now that hers had ended, the berachah had run its course. When the Imrei Emes of Gur came to console him on the loss of his wife, he told him this story, his father-in-law's blessings, and how he knew that his own end was now near.
His Final Day
On the last day of his life the Avnei Nezer rose early, and his son and family gathered at his bedside. His condition had worsened rapidly since the passing of his wife, and they saw that he was breathing his last. He motioned to them to help him, prepared himself and purified himself, and put on his tefillin for the last time.
As he davened Shemoneh Esrei he grew weaker, and during the berachah of mekabetz nidchei amo Yisroel, he motioned to them to remove his tefillin. A light of peace and tranquility shone from him as he said this berachah, and he passed away with a heavenly kiss.
Teachings
What the Rebbe's Torah Could Accomplish
It was well known to all who came to Sochatchov that the Rebbe would often say that if people only knew and understood what good he could accomplish for them through his Torah study, no one would ever dare cross his threshold again to ask for a berachah.
Abir HaRo'im, Volume II, 283, 288, 291–292
Seforim
- Shu"t Avnei Nezer: His responsa covering all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch, published after his passing in seven volumes by his son and grandson.
- Eglei Tal: His work on the thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos.
- Ne'os Deshe: His Shabbos discourses, printed after the Holocaust in two parts together with the Torah thoughts of his successors as Sochatchover Rebbes.
- Chiddushim on the Rambam and other manuscripts: Unpublished seforim of Chassidus and many writings in manuscript, including chiddushim on the Rambam.
- Chiddushim on the Gemara: His Talmudic chiddushim, arranged by tractate, which are being edited.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Zev Nachum Borenstein, his father, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter, the Chidushei HaRim of Ger, Rav Chanoch Heynekh of Alexander
Talmidim: Rav Meir Don Plotski, the Kli Chemdah, Rav Yoav Yehoshua Weingarten, the Chelkas Yoav of Kintsk, Rav Shaul Moshe Zilberman, the Vershover Rov
Children: Rav Shmuel Borenstein, the Shem MiShmuel, Esther, wife of Rav Meir Bornsztain
Also on 11 Adar
All hilulos on 11 Adar ›Historical sources
- Abir HaRo'im
- Al HaTzaddikim ve'al HaChassidim
- Ascent of Safed