Heavy Mourning, The Righteous Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach zt"l, Who Had a Great Friendship with the Righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, Has Passed Away

Heavy mourning, the angels have triumphed over the mighty and the Ark of the Covenant has been captured, the head of the 'Ma'alot HaTorah' yeshiva, the righteous Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach zt"l has passed away after suffering a heart attack on Shabbat night at his yeshiva in the Sha'arei Chesed neighborhood, and after resuscitation efforts, the doctors were forced to declare his passing.

Rabbi Auerbach zt"l was 87 at the time of his passing, and it is well known the great respect and close friendship that existed for decades between him and our teacher, the righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Asulin, a dayan in the rabbinical court of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, shared, "Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach's study partner said that Rabbi Shmuel told him that there is no Breslov chassid in this generation, the only Breslov chassid is Rabbi Eliezer Berland. And it is known that Rabbi Shmuel himself was Breslov for a period, so Rabbi Shmuel knows what Breslov is, and when Rabbi Shmuel says 'the only Breslov chassid,' he does not say it from speculation, he says it from knowledge." Thus far the words of Dayan Asulin.

[caption id="attachment_11028" align="alignnone" width="1080"] The righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a and the righteous Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach zt"l in joint study[/caption]

To strengthen these words, we present to you the words of Rabbi Aharon Boimel shlit"a, as we brought in the article, "The honorable Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach shlit"a: And you shall remove the evil from your midst. The righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a is a complete tzaddik." These are his words, "On Wednesday, the 29th of Cheshvan 5777, November 30, 2016, I had the merit to attend the emotional wedding of the survivor of the chilling accident from line 402 and to bring joy to the groom and bride," Rabbi Aharon Boimel recounts. "The wedding took place at Binyanei HaUma with the participation of many important people, and from there we traveled to pray Maariv at Zichron Moshe, the time was already close to 1:30 at night. To our joy, we found at Zichron Moshe the honorable Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach shlit"a (these were his words then) head of the Ma'alot HaTorah yeshiva and member of the presidium of the yeshiva committee, I waited close to half an hour to speak with him."

[caption id="attachment_11029" align="alignnone" width="850"] The righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a and the righteous Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach zt"l[/caption]

"When Rabbi Auerbach shlit"a exited the prayer house, I approached him and said with pain: Rabbi Auerbach, Rabbi Auerbach, what will be? They are defaming the tzaddik Rabbi Berland. They defame him and his community, they do not stop defaming, look there is a pamphlet they released, full of lies and nonsense."

"Rabbi Shmuel shlit"a answered me in Yiddish: 'Well.. and you shall remove the evil from your midst, the first thing is to remove it'!!!, Rabbi Auerbach commanded me. I did not understand the rabbi's intention, so I asked the Gaavad who was with him to explain his intention."

"The Gaavad answered me: 'Rabbi Auerbach shlit"a is telling you that you need to remove the evil from your midst, so go ahead and tear up this pamphlet and fulfill the mitzvah'! I stood before him and tore it into pieces. Rabbi Shmuel enjoyed it so much and said to me: 'Oh, and you shall remove the evil from your midst'.

Then the honorable Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach shlit"a said: 'The righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland is a complete tzaddik'.

"All the Rebbes and rabbis say that it is forbidden to touch this filth, there is not even one rabbi who stands behind it and permits distributing it and causing the public to stumble. They pay fifty shekels an hour to people willing to defile their souls and lose both worlds for distributing these trivial and false leaflets. It's a shame he defiles the public with these nonsense." Thus concludes the testimony of Rabbi Boimel there.

Amidst the heavy mourning that has unexpectedly come upon all of Israel, Rav Berland shlit"a postponed the Torah gathering that was supposed to take place in Kiryat Sefer to a date that will be announced later.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet