2 Cheshvan · Yahrzeit

Yahrzeit/Hillula of Rabbi Baruch Hager - Makor Baruch

Rabbi Baruch Hager, the Seret-Vizhnitz Rebbe, Makor Baruch (1895-1963). Born to Rav Yisrael of Vizhnitz and Rebbetzin Hinda, daughter of Rav Meir Horowitz of Dzikov, Rav Baruch was named after his grandfather, the Imrei Baruch of Vizhnitz, who had passed away two years earlier. In 1912, Rav Baruch married Chenia, daughter of Rav Yissachar Dov of Belz. He married a second time, to Tzirel, daughter of Rav Eliezer Nissan of Dzikov, in 1923. He then became Rabbi of Poleen-Riskova, and later served for nine years as rabbi of Vatra Dornei (Kotzman), Romania. He founded a Talmud Torah and a Beis Yaakov school, and worked extensively on behalf of Agudath Israel. In 1935, Rabbi Baruch moved to Siret, a Romanian town with a Jewish population of about 2,000. Shortly afterward, the Ahavat Yisrael passed away, and Rav Baruch became the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz. It is estimated that of the approximately 150,000 Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria (including all the Jews of Siret), about 90,000 perished from hunger, cold, and persecution. In Adar 1944, Rabbi Baruch was ransomed for an enormous sum and returned to Romania. He eventually moved to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1946, together with his brother the Imrei Chaim, where they remained for nearly a year. He arrived in Eretz Yisrael in Sivan 1947 and went to Haifa, where he established his court. There, Rav Baruch founded a yeshiva, a Talmud Torah, and other Torah institutions. This laid the foundation for the famous Ramat Vizhnitz community, built on the slope of Mount Carmel in Haifa, whose cornerstone was laid on the 3rd of Tammuz, 1954. Rabbi Baruch passed away at the age of sixty-eight, before the completion of his project. Sipurei Tzadikim Once, Rabbi Baruch Hager, a sage and master of Kabbalah known by the title of his book "Makor Baruch" (Source of Blessing), who had recently arrived in Haifa from Romania, told his students of his intention to visit the grave of Rabbi Avdimi in Haifa. The elderly rabbi devoted all his time to Torah study and to the affairs of the Vizhnitz community he had established in the city, and so he left his home only rarely, and only for very important reasons. Naturally, a huge crowd of his devoted chassidim gathered to accompany the Admor. The small structure built over Rabbi Avdimi's grave could barely hold everyone who came. The most zealous of his students, having given a generous donation to the beggar sitting there, began pushing him outside — whether out of concern that their Rebbe's eyes would be offended by the sight of a vagrant, or simply for lack of space. But suddenly Rav Baruch Hager himself told the crowd to make way, hurried over to the beggar, and, kissing his hand, began asking him for a blessing. The chassidim looked on in bewilderment as their Rebbe humbly bowed before a man dressed in rags, while the man, raising his cracked and weathered hands over the rabbi's head, mumbled words that only faintly resembled a blessing. The Makor Baruch himself appeared to be deeply moved by this encounter. Upon returning, he told his astonished students that the blessing of this poor man — a great tzadik — was, for him, almost the most important thing in his life. The very next day, the beggar from Rabbi Avdimi's grave passed away. He was found lying in the very spot by the grave where he had spent so many years. Doctors determined that, apparently a man of very advanced age, he had died in his sleep of heart failure. At first, many were even relieved that no one would bother them with requests for charity anymore. But then the small miracles that had so delighted the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods stopped happening. And soon they began to guess who had been answering the prayers offered at the grave of the Haifa Talmudic sage Rabbi Avdimi. The unassuming old man with his ever-outstretched hand, who seemed to care about nothing but alms, had been the very same wondrous benefactor who, overhearing people's prayers, secretly used the money he collected to help one needy person after another. It turned out that during his lifetime, no one had ever bothered to ask his name, and so he was buried nameless. What remained a mystery was how Rabbi Baruch Hager had known of the beggar's righteousness and of his impending death. Thus were fulfilled the words of Rabbi Avdimi, that with the destruction of the Temple, the gift of prophecy passed from the prophets to the sages. May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael! (From the website Tzadikim.com)