Rav Avrohom Yissocher Ber HaKohen Rabinowitz of Radomsk

Early years

Rav Avrohom Yissocher Ber HaKohen Rabinowitz of Radomsk zy"a, known as the Chesed L'Avrohom after his sefer, was the second Rebbe of Radomsk. He was born in Radomsk in 1843. His father, Rav Shlomo HaKohen Rabinowitz (1801-1866), the Tiferes Shlomo, established the Radomsk dynasty during that same year, and the newborn was his youngest son.

The child's names honored two Rebbes who had moved his father deeply. One was Rav Yissachar Ber of Radoshitz, who had been the Tiferes Shlomo's own mentor. The other was Rav Avrohom Dov of Avritch, author of Bas Ayin; the Tiferes Shlomo never met him, but he learned from his sefer. Chassidim who attended the bris testified that the Tiferes Shlomo looked into the baby's face and smiled, content that so holy a soul had been brought into the world.

Two brothers were older than he. The eldest, Leibush, was a talmid chacham and a merchant. Hirsch Mayer afterward followed their father as Rav of Radomsk.

In his youth he sat for long hours with his father, who passed on his own derech (approach) in Shas, poskim and Kabbalah. During his teens he studied with Rav Yisroel Yitzchok, Av Beis Din of Melava, and became his talmid. He grew to be a great Torah scholar, and he was also known for being refined and modest.

Torah and leadership

His father passed away in 5626 (1866), when Rav Avrohom Yissocher Ber was twenty-three. He first declined to step into his father's role, but eventually he accepted it, and he led Radomsk for the next twenty-six years. His brothers accepted his authority despite his youth, and thousands came to him. Radomsk became one of the most important Chassidic courts in Poland.

Once he was Rebbe, chassidim from across Poland and Galicia were drawn to him, including well-known rabbonim and roshei yeshiva.

Among the urgent matters of his day was the conscription of young Jewish men, who were forced into an army full of antisemitism. His father, the Tiferes Shlomo, had founded a committee that collected funds to buy recruits their freedom, and the Rebbe took over as its head.

He was known for his great ahavas Yisroel and his charitable nature. Like his father, he had a gift for music and a beautiful singing voice. Rav Chaim Elozor Shapira of Munkacs, who had met him, published a heartfelt hesped (eulogy) for him in Zichron Tzaddikim.

Teachings and seforim

His divrei Torah were published in two volumes, Chesed L'Avrohom, on the Torah, and Moadim. Chesed L'Avrohom was published in Piotrkow in 1893.

Family

Rav Avrohom Yissocher Ber married a daughter of Rav Menachem Mendel Landeberg. They had five sons and four daughters.

The sons were Rav Moshe Elimelech, who died during his father's lifetime; Rav Yechezkel (1862-1910), author of Knesses Yechezkel and the next Rebbe of Radomsk; Rav Shlomo of Elkush, who was a businessman; Rav Noson Nachum of Krimolov; and Rav Yaakov Yosef (1873-1902), Rav of Kalobotzek and Breznitza and author of Emes L'Yaakov.

Among his sons-in-law were Rav Menachem Mendel Alter, Rav of Pabianice (Fabyanitz) and a son of the Sfas Emes of Ger; Rav Avrohom Kalisch of Amshinov; Rav Mordechai Menachem Kalisch of Otvozcek; and Rav Mendel of Otwock, a grandson of Rav Yitzchok of Vorka. Mottel Blas, a Radomsker chossid and businessman, also married one of his daughters.

Later years and passing

The Rebbe was ill with diabetes. He passed away in Radomsk on 13 Elul 5652 (September 5, 1892) at the age of forty-nine. His kever is beside that of his father, the Tiferes Shlomo, inside the Radomsk ohel.

Diabetes also struck his successor, Rav Yechezkel, who passed away at forty-eight. A grandson, Rav Shlomo Chanoch HaKohen Rabinowicz, suffered from it as well. Insulin had been discovered by 1921, so the illness did not take his life; the Nazis murdered him at age sixty, in an aktion in the Warsaw Ghetto.