Rav Sholom Noach Berezovsky

Early years

Rav Sholom Noach Berezovsky zy"a, the Slonimer Rebbe, was born in 5671 (1911) in Baranovitsh, today in Belarus. His father, Rav Avrohom Moshe, was the Rosh HaKohol, the head of the Jewish community. His mother was a granddaughter of Rav Hillel, a brother of the first Slonimer Rebbe, the Yesod HaAvoda.

Baranovitsh is best known as the home of Rav Elchonon Wasserman and his yeshiva. It was also the home of the Slonimer Rebbe, Rav Avrohom Weinberg, known as the Bais Avrohom, and his yeshiva, Toras Chessed. The Bais Avrohom was a great-grandson and namesake of the Yesod HaAvoda.

The young Sholom Noach learned in Toras Chessed under its Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Avrohom Shmuel Hirshovitz, a grandson of Rav Eliezer Gordon of Telz, and its mashgiach (spiritual supervisor), Rav Moshe Midner, a grandson of the Yesod HaAvoda and a talmid of Rav Chaim Brisker. With such leaders, the yeshiva was almost unique in joining Lithuanian-style Gemara study with the teachings of Chassidus.

Torah and leadership

Around 1930 the Bais Avrohom asked him to commit to memory, and write down after Shabbos, the Torah discourses that the Rebbe gave each Shabbos. These notes later became the sefer Bais Avrohom.

Shortly before his own passing in 1933, the Bais Avrohom suggested to his cousin Rav Avrohom Weinberg of Teveria that he take Rav Sholom Noach as a son-in-law, and he married the daughter of Rav Avrohom Weinberg in 1933. Teveria was home to many Slonimer chassidim, including Rav Avrohom's brother, the father of Rav Yaakov Weinberg, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel, and of Rav Noach Weinberg, the late founder of Aish HaTorah.

In 1940 he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of Achei Temimim, the Lubavitcher yeshiva in Tel Aviv. On Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5702 (October 21, 1941) he opened the Slonimer yeshiva in Yerushalayim with five students. As in Baranovitsh, it offered the teachings of Chassidus alongside shiurim in the Lithuanian style of analysis. He sat with the students for hours, especially on Friday night, teaching them the traditional Slonimer melodies.

The yeshiva became the seed of the rebirth of Slonimer Chassidus after its near destruction in the Holocaust. The last Slonimer Rebbe before the war, Rav Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua Weinberg, was killed in 1944, and for ten years no successor was named. In 1954 Rav Sholom Noach's father-in-law agreed to take on the role of Rebbe. His teachings, also written down by Rav Sholom Noach, are collected in Birchas Avrohom, the name by which he is known.

After his father-in-law's petira on 12 Sivan 5741 (1981), Rav Sholom Noach became the Slonimer Rebbe. He served for almost twenty years and was succeeded by his son, Rav Shmuel.

Teachings and seforim

Apart from the Yesod HaAvoda, none of the Slonimer Rebbes or their predecessors, the Rebbes of Lechovitch and Kobrin, wrote down their teachings. As part of his work to renew Slonimer Chassidus, Rav Sholom Noach collected the oral traditions of these leaders in works such as Divrei Shmuel and Toras Avos, in addition to Bais Avrohom and Birchas Avrohom.

He also wrote many volumes of his own teachings, including the seven-volume Nesivos Sholom (1982) and many smaller works on education, marital harmony and other subjects. His seforim are marked by a practice of drawing practical, moral and ethical lessons from the pesukim, using the traditional Chassidic methods of interpretation.

Later years and passing

Rav Sholom Noach passed away in Yerushalayim on 7 Av 5760 (2000).

Legacy

Through his writings Rav Sholom Noach became one of the most influential Chassidic Rebbes of recent times, and his impact was felt among chassidim and non-chassidim alike. A leading Lithuanian Rosh Yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel is said to have called the Nesivos Sholom "the Mesillas Yeshorim of our times," a reference to the eighteenth-century classic of mussar.