27 Elul · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Yehuda Zev Leibovitz - Hidden Tzadik
Rabbi Yehuda Zev Leibovitz (1925-2009) – one of the hidden tzadikim of the previous generation, a Kabbalist and miracle-worker, was born in the city of Satmar.
Yahrzeit - 27 Elul
Resting place - Bnei Brak, Israel
The holy Tzadik Rabbi Yehuda Zev Leibovitz was a teacher and friend of Rabbi Aharon Stern, and a mentor to Rabbi Shalom Arush.
Rabbi Yehuda Zev was born on October 8, 1921, in the city of Orshuva. At the time of his birth, the Admor of Satmar, of blessed memory, was serving as the city's rabbi.
Rabbi Yehuda Zev's father - Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi, was known as the "Rebbe of Orshuva" and later also became the city's rabbi. Yehuda Zev's father was his first teacher in both the revealed and hidden Torah.
Rav Yoel Hirshfong, of blessed memory, later attested to this in a letter he wrote to Rabbi Yehuda Zev: "My beloved friend, the holy and pious rabbi, son of a holy man, Rabbi Yehuda Zev Leibovitz."
The holy Rabbi Yissachar Dov of Komarno wrote about Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi in a letter to Rabbi Yehuda Zev: "I remember your holy father, Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi, may G-d avenge his blood and may his memory be blessed, who was known for his self-sacrifice, his knowledge of Torah, and his fear of Heaven, and this is well known and needs no proof."
He studied under the Admor Rabbi Yoel of Satmar and Rabbi Yehuda Rosner, Av Beit Din of Skelehid, author of the book "Imrei Yehuda."
During the Holocaust he lost his family in Auschwitz, and after liberation he emigrated to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv, where he lived alone in a one-room apartment and, as the Chazon Ish advised, worked as a road builder. In Israel he joined a group of Kabbalists, students of the Admor Baal HaSulam, but unlike them he remained hidden for many years. He stayed in close contact with Rabbi Aharon Rokeach of Belz and the Admor Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam of Tzanz-Klausenburg (Netanya), who admired him and considered him one of the 36 hidden tzadikim.
In his old age he moved to the city of Bnei Brak. Among those who visited him and studied with him were Rav Wosner and Rav Mordechai Gross. They told of many miracles connected with him.
He was a remarkable genius in Torah, both revealed and hidden, and from his writings the books "Kol Yehuda" and "Zot LeYehuda" were printed.
Rabbi Yehuda Zev and the Satmar Rebbe - Yoel Teitelbaum
On one Purim, after drinking a little wine, he approached the Satmar Rebbe and asked his permission to speak. The Rebbe agreed, and Rabbi Yehuda Zev said:
"The name Yoel is made up of the first letters of the verse 'Ado-nai li - lo ira' - (Hashem is with me, I shall not fear) (Tehillim 118:6), as well as of the expression: 'May you merit long years and blessed days.'" The Satmar Rebbe was very fond of this clever acronym, and for many years, whenever he met Rabbi Yehuda Zev, he would proudly remind him of the acronyms of his name.
During the Holocaust, Rabbi Yehuda Zev ended up in a concentration camp, where he went through hell on earth.
Although the Nazis left his body broken, they could not break his strong spirit. His brother related that they arrived at the camp as a group of three hundred young men from Satmar, and by the end of the war only thirty of the original group had survived. Rabbi Yehuda Zev was known to everyone in the camp as "The One Who Recites Kaddish," for amid all the horror he witnessed daily - as carts carried the bodies of the murdered to burial - he would run after the wagons and recite Kaddish in a loud and passionate voice, to elevate their souls.
Rabbi Yehuda Zev told Rav Aharon Stern the following story:
In the town where he lived - in Hungary, there was a gentile orphan boy named Ivan. He was a poor, abandoned child who had become a punching bag for the town's children. He was beaten and humiliated in every way. He wandered the streets in rags, and the only one who took pity on him, brought him into his home, and fed, gave drink, and clothed him, was Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi (Rabbi Yehuda Zev's father).
When his own children demanded that he explain his actions, he answered indirectly by quoting the verse: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it." (Kohelet 11:1)
Years later, when Rav Rabbi Yehuda Zev was in the concentration camp, this same Ivan was in charge of the kitchen.
He remembered the kindness that Rabbi Yehuda Zev's father had shown him in his youth, and he secretly smuggled out a small amount of food and water for Rabbi Yehuda Zev. This is what enabled the Rebbe to survive. Rabbi Yehuda Zev later praised his father's foresight.
At the end of the war, broken and suffering, when all that remained of his family were one brother and two sisters, Rabbi Yehuda Zev sailed illegally by ship to Israel. As soon as they reached the shore, they were taken to the island of Cyprus and detained there. After a short stay, they were allowed to enter Israel. When Rabbi Yehuda Zev arrived in Israel and disembarked from the ship, he was astonished to see that the righteous and holy Rabbi Yosef Voltoch (one of the 6 kabbalist craftsmen) and the Rebbe of Komarno were waiting for him at the gangway with great joy. When Rabbi Yehuda Zev told this to Rav Aharon Stern, he wondered how they had known that Rabbi Yehuda Zev was arriving in Israel; he replied that he himself had also been very surprised.
Rav Aharon Stern accompanied Rabbi Yehuda Zev for decades. In the last decade of Rabbi Yehuda Zev's life, the great Rav Aharon Stern did not leave his side for a single step.
A Special Prayer Before "Asher Yatzar"
https://silatehilim.com/особая-молитва-перед-брахой-ашер-яца/
May the merit of the Tzadik protect Am Yisrael!