Rav Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach

Early years

Rav Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach zt"l, known as Rav Chaim Leib and as the Chacham Lev after his sefer, was born in 1883 (5643) and grew up in Yerushalayim. His father, Rav Avrohom Dov Auerbach, was the Admor of Chernowitz-Chmielnik in Poland and a son-in-law of Rav Tzvi Halberstam, son of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. Rav Avrohom Dov was a son of Rav Yehuda Dov Auerbach of Tzfas and Yerushalayim, who was a son of Rav Yoel Faivel Stein. Rav Yoel Faivel was a son-in-law of Rav Avrohom Dov of Chmielnik, who was himself a son-in-law of Rav Yaakov Yosef of Polonne, the Baal Shem Tov's most prominent talmid and author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef.

At the age of eighteen he received semicha from Rav Chaim Berlin of Yerushalayim. His thirst for Torah was unquenchable, and he became a devoted talmid of Rav Shimon Lider-Horowitz, from whom he learned Toras HaNistar (the hidden Torah, Kabbalah).

In 5667 (1907) he married Tzivya, daughter of Rav Shlomo Zalman Porush, one of the foremost askonim (communal leaders) of Yerushalayim and the founder of the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood. Even during the sheva berachos he learned through the night with his brother-in-law, Rav Akiva Porush. Their first son, Shlomo Zalman, named for his maternal grandfather, was the first child born in Shaarei Chesed.

The yeshiva Shaar HaShomayim

It is told that Rav Chaim Leib once dreamed that the Arizal came to him and complained that few Yidden learned his Torah, which has the power to redeem the Shechinah from galus. The moment he woke, he went to his rebbe, Rav Shimon, who, it turned out, had dreamed the very same dream. Rebbe and talmid decided on the spot to open a yeshiva for the study of the Arizal's Torah, and they called it Shaar HaShomayim.

The yeshiva opened in the Old City of Yerushalayim, in 1906, with a Talmud Torah, a yeshiva ketanah, a yeshiva gedolah and a kollel for married students. Rav Chaim Leib and Rav Shimon Tzvi Horowitz, author of Shem MiShimon and Kol Mevaser, were its first roshei yeshiva. Rav Chaim Leib stood at its helm from 1906 until his passing in 1954.

When his father passed away, his father's chassidim asked him to become their Rebbe. He chose instead to remain rosh yeshiva of Shaar HaShomayim and left the position of Admor unfilled. He was also among the founders of the Chassidic Bais Medrash in Shaarei Chesed and served as its Rav.

He wrote a commentary on the Torah called Chacham Lev.

Mesirus nefesh and a hidden life

It is told that during World War I, when young Jewish men faced conscription into the Turkish army, Rav Chaim Leib acted with mesirus nefesh to save them. Somehow he obtained the post of ambassador for the Ethiopian embassy and issued Ethiopian citizenship to many Jews. It was a grave offense and easy to uncover, since Ethiopians are dark-skinned and the papers went to lighter-skinned Yerushalmi Jews. He was officially sentenced to death as a traitor, and he hid from the authorities for months after the war.

He raised money for his yeshiva with great self-sacrifice. At times he gave away every penny he had and left nothing for his family. Often he pledged his own family's belongings, even the furniture, as security for loans taken to support the yeshiva's talmidim.

Like many families in Yerushalayim after the First World War, the Auerbachs lived in dire poverty. Their home in the Nachalas Tzadok neighborhood, next to Shaarei Chesed, had no refrigerator or icebox, and the food for Shabbos was kept in a box lowered on a rope into the well to keep it cold. His son Rav Shlomo Zalman once remarked, "In my youth, I never felt full." Another son, Rav Avrohom Dovid, said that he never once ate a whole egg at home; his mother would scramble one egg with a little flour and divide it among three children.

Even so, Rav Chaim Leib and his wife valued Torah and talmidei chachamim above all. They looked only for serious Torah scholars for their daughters, not for wealth or reputation.

He lived in holy ways, like the hidden tzaddikim. He often rolled in the snow and wore sackcloth under his clothes. He went to sleep early, rose before midnight, and learned until dawn, then said Shema and slept again until it was time to daven. Some neighbors criticized him for going to bed early and rising late, not knowing that while they slept he was learning Torah.

He loved to collect seforim. Although seforim were very expensive in the 1920s, he built a large library. Between the two world wars, when Eretz Yisroel was gripped by famine and people sold their seforim by the wagonload to buy bread, he lived on the bare minimum and bought many of them.

Later years and passing

Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld gave Rav Chaim Leib a well-known berocha: that in the merit of all he did, he would have children who would light up Klal Yisroel with their Torah and yiras Shomayim. That berocha was fulfilled. His son was none other than Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and his sons-in-law included Rav Sholom Schwadron and Rav Simcha Bunim Leizerzohn, who was niftar in his prime.

Rav Chaim Leib suffered two heart attacks. A month before his passing he had a severe one and lapsed into semi-consciousness, and after the second he suffered for some time. He passed away on 28 Elul 5714 (September 26, 1954). He is buried on Har HaMenuchos, where his wife Tzivya and his son Rav Eliezer are also laid to rest.

Legacy

Leadership of Shaar HaShomayim has stayed in the Auerbach family. After Rav Chaim Leib's passing, his son Rav Eliezer led the yeshiva for many years, followed by another son, Rav Refoel Dovid. Rav Shlomo Zalman served as its president, and after him his son Rav Shmuel. Rav Yechezkel Schlaff of London, a nephew of Rav Shlomo Zalman, serves as administrator. The yeshiva has recently been headed by Rav Yaakov Meir Shechter and Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz.

The yeshiva has had a long road. Among its first talmidim in the Old City was Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank. In 1948, when the fighting began before the British left, Haganah fighters took up positions on the roof, and when the Old City fell, the Jordanians set the building on fire with all its seforim. Only a plaque at number one Rechov Gal'ed now recalls it. The yeshiva moved first to Katamon, where a beis haknesses named Shaar HaShomayim stands to this day, then to Beis Yisroel, and in 1958 to temporary premises on Rechov Rashbam. After Rav Chaim Leib's passing, his son Rav Refoel worked to fulfill his father's wish for a spacious home of its own, and the building on Rechov Rashi in Mekor Baruch was bought for the yeshiva. The beis medrash there has thirteen windows on each side, twenty-six in all, the gematria of Hashem's Name.

The yeshiva is still the main address for Ashkenazim who wish to study Kabbalah. Only those who are already well grounded in Shas and poskim are admitted to the study of the hidden Torah, half of each day is given to the revealed Torah, and talmidim are strictly forbidden to use practical Kabbalah. Shaar HaShomayim also helped make the Arizal's yahrzeit on 5 Av, and the weekly tikkunim of the Shovovim weeks, known to the public, and it has published many works of Kabbalah.