Rav Dovid Borenstein of Sokotshuv

Early years

Rav Dovid Borenstein of Sokotshuv zy"a was born on Rosh Chodesh Elul in Nashlask (Nasielsk), Poland. He was the oldest son of Rav Shmuel of Sokotshuv, author of the Shem MiShmuel, and his wife, Rebbetzin Yuta Leah. He had a younger brother, Rav Chanoch Henoch, and at least one sister.

His grandfather, Rav Avrohom, later famous as the Avnei Nezer, was then Rav of Nashlask. In 1883 the Avnei Nezer became Rav of Sokotshuv, and Rav Shmuel's family moved there with him, living in a home of their own in the town.

As a boy, Dovid had a private melamed, Rav Yitzchok Shlomo Lieberman of Ozorkow, but his main rebbi was his grandfather. From the Avnei Nezer he learned nigleh and nistar, the revealed and hidden Torah, together with the Avnei Nezer's distinctive derech (approach) in understanding the words of Chazal, which became the foundation of Sokotshuver Chassidus. He went on to learn in his grandfather's yeshiva among bochurim much older than himself. He was a talmid muvhak (closest student) of the Avnei Nezer, who said of him, "My grandson has a sechel makif, an intellect that encompasses everything from one end to the other."

In 1891 he became engaged to Rachel, the daughter of the Pilover Rebbe, Rav Chaim Yisroel Morgenstern, but she passed away that same year before the chasuna. Two years later he married Esther, daughter of Rav Mottel Weingot, a Gerrer chassid. Instead of settling near his father-in-law, as was the custom, the young couple lived in the Avnei Nezer's house, so that he could keep learning from his grandfather.

Torah and leadership

In 5668 (1908) he was appointed Rav of Vishagrod, where he accomplished a great deal. He opened a yeshiva following the Sokotshuver method of learning, and hundreds of young men learned there.

When the First World War broke out he left for Lodz. After the war he would not go back to Vishagrod, because too many askanim (communal activists) there had a hand in communal affairs. Instead he became Rav of Tomashuv Mazovietsk, a post he held from 1918 to 1926.

In 5686 (1926), after his father's passing, the Sokotshuver chassidim crowned him as their Rebbe. The appointment was made at the levayah itself, on 24 Teves. He left the Tomashuv rabbinate and lived in Otwaczek, then in Pabianice (Favayanitz), where he set up his court, then in Kolomna, and finally back in Lodz. From there he led the chassidim and the court of Sokotshuv, one of the finest and greatest in Poland.

He founded a yeshiva named Bais Avrohom, after his grandfather, and appointed Rav Aryeh Leib Fromer, Av Beis Din of Koziglov, as its rosh yeshiva. Lodz became the centre of the Sokotshuver yeshivos, a network that reached Warsaw and other cities across Poland. The yeshivos had their own newsletter, also called Bais Avrohom.

His chassidim included many great rabbanim and gedolei Yisroel, among them Rav Avrohom Weinberg, author of Reishis Bikkurim; Rav Aryeh Leib Fromer of Koziglov, author of Shu"t Eretz HaTzvi; Rav Eliyahu Laskovski, Av Beis Din of Dvahrt; Rav Walfish Bornstein of Tshenstachov; Rav Boruch Laznovski, Av Beis Din of Oyazd; Rav Chaim, Av Beis Din of Konstantin; and Rav Eliezer Lipman Leventhal, Av Beis Din of Tzildaz, as well as the rabbanim of Feshaitsh, Piontik, Walli, Radomsk and other towns.

He took an active part in the affairs of Polish Jewry. He was a member of Agudas HaRabbonim and of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and among the leaders of Agudas Yisroel in Poland. He was counted among the leading Rebbes of his generation.

The Rebbe was easygoing and pleasant, greeted everyone with a smile, and was known for his true ahavas Yisroel.

Love of Eretz Yisroel

Rav Dovid held Eretz Yisroel dear and wove its praises into all his Shabbos derashos. He called on Jews to settle the Land and to invest in its development, and he urged his chassidim to move there. He said that he himself would have gone, were it not for the thousands of chassidim in Poland who relied on him.

He visited Eretz Yisroel twice, in 5684 and 5695. On the first journey, together with his brother Rav Chanoch Henoch, he made a down payment on land south of Ramle, hoping to found a chassidic settlement there. Back in Poland he set out to raise the rest of the money, but an economic crisis struck soon afterwards. In the end he lost both the land and the money he had put into it.

At the Agudas Yisroel conference of 5694 he called for active work in Eretz Yisroel, because "from there a revival and renewal will come forth until the days of Moshiach."

Later years and passing

When the Germans entered Lodz on Rosh Hashanah 1939, the city held the second-largest Jewish community in Europe. The invaders grabbed Jewish men off the streets for forced labour, and they came looking for the Rebbe. They found him at home, beat him, cut off part of his beard, tortured and humiliated him in public, and forced him to sweep the streets. Afterwards his chassidim obtained false papers for him and smuggled him to Warsaw, where he lived under a hidden identity.

Even so, his home became a centre of Torah and a meeting place for rabbanim and askanim. He kept conducting his tisch every Shabbos; on Shavuos 5700 he held a tisch for chassidim in Warsaw. He also looked after the learning of several hundred Sokotshuver yeshiva bochurim in the ghetto and gave comfort and chizuk to many.

Before Rosh Hashanah 5701 he sent a Kol Koreh (public letter) to his chassidim, urging them to stand strong in their trials, to do teshuvah, and to lift their spirits.

He was among the first to tell the ghetto's Jews that they faced mortal danger, and to call for mass escape rather than giving in to Nazi demands. In Tammuz 1942 he gathered rabbanim to warn them, but many could not believe the danger was so great. According to eyewitnesses, the meetings that led to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began in his home.

He worked in several factories, the last of them a shoe factory owned by one Schultz, where other Rebbes and prominent rabbanim were also employed. Fearing that the Nazis were hunting him, he kept moving from place to place, and spent time in Otwaczek. During the deportations from Warsaw he hid in a shop at 67 Gensha Street. There he passed away of a heart attack on 8 Kislev 5703, escaping death at the Nazis' hands.

Some 500 Jews took part in his levayah, which made its way to the ohel of Rav Shlomo Zalman, the first Rav of Warsaw and author of Chemdas Shlomo. He was the last person buried in the Gensha Street cemetery; the day after the levayah the Nazis shut the cemetery. His kever could not be marked, and its exact place is unknown to this day.

Legacy

In the spring of 1943 the Nazis murdered the Rebbe's wife, his daughters, his sons-in-law and his grandchildren. His son Rav Avrohom survived and moved to Eretz Yisroel.

Nearly all of the Rebbe's numerous manuscripts were lost. Some of his divrei Torah were printed in the second volume of Neos Deshe. A few surviving pages of chiddushim on the Haggadah shel Pesach were published as Chasdei Dovid, printed together with the ninth volume of his father's Shem MiShmuel, which is on the Haggadah.

Leadership of the Sokotshuver chassidim passed to his brother, Rav Chanoch Henoch, who had opened a beis medrash in Bayit Vegan, Eretz Yisroel.