Rabbi Yitzchok HaKohen Huberman - The Tzadik of Raanana

Rabbi Yitzchok HaKohen Huberman - The Tzadik of Raanana (1896-1977). Yahrzeit - 18 Tevet Resting place - Har HaMenuchot, Jerusalem   His father, Rav Asher Anshel, taught in the town of Tomashov and knew the entire Tanach and Mishnah by heart (with the commentaries of the Rav and Tosefot Yom Tov), as well as all the Alshich's commentaries on the Tanach. Rav Asher Anshel did not accept payment for teaching, since his wife took on financial responsibility for the family so that he could devote himself to learning and teaching Torah. Rav Yitzchok's mother was his first teacher, teaching him Tanach, and by the age of seven he knew it perfectly. By the age of ten, young Yitzchok's mind was mature enough to attend shiurim together with students much older than him. The teacher was concerned that the students would refuse to attend classes with a child, so his father would come every day and pretend that he had come to hear the shiur and had brought his son along. Around that same time, Rav Yitzchok heard about the Yeshiva of the Rebbe of Sochatchov, the "Iglei Tal", and desperately wanted to go study there, but his parents were concerned that the trip would be too exhausting for such a young child and would not allow him to go. Four years later, after the passing of the "Iglei Tal," when his son, the "Shem MiShmuel," expanded the Yeshiva to include shiurim for younger bochurim, his parents let him go. He remained there until the beginning of World War I. At the Yeshiva he received semicha from Rav Michael Forshlager. Rav Forshlager required that he be able to recite the entire Masechet Chullin by heart, together with the Rif, the Ran, and the Rosh, as well as the Tur, Beit Yosef, and Shulchan Aruch. He also expected him to develop original ideas. After the war began, he went to Warsaw and studied there in the Sochatchov shtiebel. He studied under Rav Tzvi Glixon, the son-in-law of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, and through him became acquainted with the Brisker Rav. He took advantage of the fact that many refugees had come to Warsaw, which gave him the opportunity to meet a number of Chassidic Rebbes, as well as many Roshei Yeshiva and rabbis. His primary connection was with Gerrer Chassidus. By 1927 he had written a large volume of chiddushei Torah on the Tanach and Gemara, and since he had no children, the Gerrer Rebbe urged him to publish a sefer in order to leave behind a legacy. A few months later he met the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, who was very impressed by his ideas and told his chassidim that "this is what is called learning Chassidus." Years later he received a similar reaction when he shared his ideas with Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap. For various reasons, the publication of his books was delayed until the summer of 1939.   After the war began Shortly after the war broke out, he was conscripted into a labor brigade, where he was regularly beaten. One time, a Polish soldier killed a Nazi cavalryman and his horse. Sixteen men were forced to leave the house where they were staying in order to dig a pit in which to bury the horse. When they finished digging and climbed out of the pit, the officer ordered them to line up, took each man's hat, and threw it into the pit. Seeing that Rav Huberman had a yarmulke under his hat, the Nazi said, "Oh, you're a rabbi," and pushed him into the pit. To everyone's amazement, he survived the fall without injury, and when the officer saw that he was still alive, he ordered the other men to take the horse's carcass and throw it on top of him. The men protested, but the officer would not budge and threatened to shoot them. They began dragging the carcass toward the pit when suddenly a general appeared and shouted at the officer: "The front is over there, and you're fooling around with these damned Jews?!" The Nazis left, and the men pulled Rav Huberman out of the pit. He was certain that the general had been an angel. On another occasion, a soldier ordered him to clear away fallen straw. The officer was unhappy with his efforts and ordered him to stand facing the wall. Rav Huberman heard the officer fumbling with his weapon for fifteen minutes, but then he began to laugh and told him to go. Realizing that the situation was dire, he decided to head to territory controlled by the Russians, together with his wife, her brother, and his family. He tried to convince his mother and sister to come along, but his sister was soon to be married and did not want to go, so her mother stayed behind as well. Getting past the border guard proved quite difficult, but they managed to distract the guards and cross into Russian territory. They eventually settled in Radzvill, where the local rabbi honored him by asking him to give a class on Pirkei Avot on Shabbat. Trying to find work to support his family, he spoke with some local residents after Shabbat and decided to buy dairy products in Radzvill, transport them to Lemberg (Lvov), and bring back cigarettes and whiskey from there to sell in Radzvill. All of this was illegal under Communist rule. One time, as he was driving a fully loaded wagon to Lemberg, he was met at a crossroads by a Russian secret police officer. The usual procedure in such cases was that the wagon and its contents would be destroyed, and everyone in the wagon could expect their home to be raided for contraband. The officer jumped into the wagon and ordered Rav Huberman to keep driving; he expected to be taken to the police station. Instead, the officer spoke to him in Yiddish, saying that on Shabbat he had passed by a synagogue and seen a crowd there. Curious as to what was happening, he went in to listen and was deeply moved and inspired by Rav Huberman's remarks on Pirkei Avot. He wanted to make sure the rabbi took a route that would avoid running into other policemen, which is why he had jumped into the wagon. He spent most of the war years in Siberia working as a woodcutter. At one point, when he was forced to work on Shabbat, he cut off part of one of his fingers so that he would be released. He said that it was better to have a blemish that would disqualify him from serving in the Beit HaMikdash than to desecrate Shabbat. When the war ended, he spent six years in Wetzlar, Germany, serving as the local rabbi. In that position, he helped many survivors rebuild their lives emotionally, psychologically, and financially. In 1950 he moved to Israel and settled in Raanana. He had a close relationship with the Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel, who would come to Raanana to visit him. Many people came to Raanana just to receive his brachot, and there are countless stories of how his brachot and prayers helped people. May the merit of the tzadik protect the Jewish people   (https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/rav-yitzchok-hakohen-huberman/2023/12/21/)