Rabbi Boruch Ber bar Shmuel David Leibovitz was born in Slutsk in 1862Yahrzeit - 6 KislevResting place - the "Zarechye" (Olandu) cemetery in Vilna, Lithuania He was a gifted young man, a prodigy by the standards of his time. At the age of sixteen he entered the Volozhin Yeshiva, where he became the closest student of Chaim Soloveitchik (Chaim Brisker), who did everything he could to foster his intellectual development. Boruch Ber was part of the small group of students with whom Chaim prepared his future lessons.After completing his studies, Boruch Ber became rabbi in Glusk (Mogilev region), where he opened a yeshiva attended by more than a hundred students.In 1904, on the recommendation of his mentor Chaim Soloveitchik, Boruch Ber was invited to head the Knesset Yitzchak Yeshiva located in Slabodka (a suburb of Kovno, today Kaunas, Lithuania). His entire subsequent life, filled with many events, was bound up with this yeshiva.In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Boruch Ber moved with his yeshiva to Minsk, and later to Kremenchug. In 1921, after overcoming many trials, the yeshiva returned from Soviet Russia to the Lithuanian region and settled in the city of Vilna (today Vilnius), which by that time had already become part of the Polish state.The "golden age" of the yeshiva began in 1926, when it moved to Kamenets.Boruch Ber became renowned throughout the Jewish world as a brilliant religious analyst. Based on his lessons in the yeshiva, he wrote the book "Birkat Shmuel" ("The Blessing of Shmuel"), in which he developed further the analytical methods of Torah study of his mentor Chaim Soloveitchik.Boruch Ber with studentsAccording to the recollections of those who knew him, Boruch Ber possessed exceptional personal holiness: "when he recited a blessing, his face would tense up, and his voice would tremble with awe before the One Who sent his soul into this world - 'B-b-boruch!'...", and the holiness of our food became understood even by those who had no idea what a blessing was. To those who listened to his singing at the Shabbat table, it seemed that "the chains release the soul, and it trembles its wings, ready to take flight" (Ruchama Shain, "All for the Boss").In Kamenets, the number of yeshiva students grew to several hundred, and in 1928 Boruch Ber traveled to the United States to raise charitable funds. He was received with great honor - at the New York harbor he was greeted by bankers and industrialists, professors and heads of Jewish communities. New York Mayor Jimmy Walker presented Leibovitz with the keys to the city. After meeting the tzadik, the mayor said: "Rabbi Leibovitz refutes Darwin's theory - a man possessing such a level of holiness could only have been created by the Almighty."Leaders of American Jewry insisted that Boruch Ber remain in the United States and take the position of chairman of the All-American Council of Rabbis, but he decided to return to his yeshiva in Kamenets.On the eve of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah in 1939, advance German units entered Kamenets. Later, carrying out the secret agreement signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov, they withdrew, and on Yom Kippur (the Day of Judgment) the Red Army entered the city. Without delay, Boruch Ber set out together with the entire yeshiva for Vilna, hoping to obtain documents there for the remaining students and to make his way to the Land of Israel.However, he managed to give only a few lessons in Vilna before he "was called up to the Heavenly Yeshiva on 6 Kislev 5700" (he died of pneumonia on November 18, 1939).He was buried in the "Zarechye" (Olandu) Jewish cemetery in Vilna.On learning of the passing of Boruch Ber Leibovitz, the chief rabbi of Vilna, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, said with a trembling voice: "With the passing of Shimon Shkop and Boruch Ber, the selfless labor of comprehending the Torah, which protected the entire generation, has been cut short. I fear that now the road lies open before the accursed Nazis." A little later, in the Land of Israel, Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (the Chazon Ish) gave a similar assessment of events: "As long as Shimon Shkop and Boruch Ber Leibovitz were alive, the Nazis could not take hold of the Lithuanian region - ...and only once these tzadikim were called up to their eternal abode did the Lithuanian region fall into the hands of the wicked."May the merit of this tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
