Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yosef Schwartz - Saba mi-Netanya

Rabbi Yosef Schwartz, known as «Saba mi-Netanya» (Grandfather from Netanya)   Yahrzeit - 8 Adar Resting place - Netanya, Israel He was born in Romania. During the Holocaust he was saved from death several times, but lost almost his entire family - except for his mother and younger brother Reuven. After that he traveled through Europe - including Hungary, Austria, and Germany. He went to Israel with his mother and brother Reuven on the ship «Maapilim». As a child he studied at the Beit Yosef Yeshiva under the Steipler Gaon - Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky. At first he lived at the Shavuot Am crossroads and in the immigrant camp in Pardes Hana, and later lived in Netanya. In the IDF he served as a paratrooper in the Nachal Brigade. Until the age of 40, Saba mi-Netanya was not married, due to his holiness and purity. He knew that his shidduch was a disabled woman in a wheelchair - Michal, from the Weinstein family. He went to their house and said that he wanted to marry her. Her father was blind and could not believe that anyone would want to marry a girl with paralyzed legs who used a wheelchair; he asked again: «What? Have you come to shame an Israelite woman? How can you marry her?» Saba mi-Netanya answered: «I have not come to mock, G-d forbid; I truly wish to marry your daughter, and we will have a child, and we will name our son after you, Yitzchak.» And so it happened: Saba married Michal and for many years devotedly cared for her, doing everything necessary for her wellbeing. Miracles in the merit of Saba mi-Netanya A miracle occurred during the chuppah: Saba said to his father-in-law, «How can you give your daughter in marriage without seeing the groom? Without seeing us under the chuppah?!» At that moment Rabbi Yitzchak, the bride's blind father, began to regain his sight and saw his son-in-law and daughter under the chuppah. When it came time for Rebbetzin Michal to give birth, Saba took her to the hospital and went to pray. When he returned, the doctor suddenly called him into the room and asked him to be given a sedative injection. Saba said to him: «I don't need an injection, tell me exactly what you want to tell me - I went through the Shoah, I walked over corpses.» The doctor said he was very sorry, but there had been some complication, and that both his wife and child had died during birth. Saba said: «You are a liar! I don't believe you.» He left the hospital, went to the synagogue, opened the ark and cried out what he used to cry out in the most difficult moments to the L-rd of the world, the L-rd of all souls. Then he left the synagogue, bought flowers, rubies, makeup, and the cheesecake his wife Michal loved, and returned to the hospital, where Michal was waiting for him with the baby in her arms. He said that in truth his wife had already passed away, and this was indeed a resurrection of the dead. The doctor came into her room on Shabbat and immediately said to Saba: «What was that? What did you do? I saw techiyat ha-meitim with my own eyes.» Saba mi-Netanya answered: «King David is feasting, accompanying the Queen on Mount Zion.» Grandfather made every effort to arrange the escort of the Queen [Shabbat] accompanied by King David to Zion. This was also a matter of the unity of Israel and ahavat Yisrael. Once he said: «Here sleeps Mashiach.» Saba told several times that he had seen the righteous Mashiach, only he did not know at the time that it was Mashiach himself. He is a poor, sickly, very poor man, who has many troubles. He was about fifty-eight years old. Saba told how he met him in Jerusalem and took certain steps to find him. But afterward he had to fast and ask G-d's forgiveness for it. Because it is forbidden to reveal Mashiach Tzidkeinu before the Holy One, Blessed be He, wishes it. Saba used to say: «Mashiach cannot appear and act as a collective soul until we have unity and true love for Israel.» He said: «The entire people of Israel, all the Jews in the world, must truly unite, as one person with one heart. But I do not see this happening. What will be? Who knows what troubles will come and what harsh decrees will unite the people of Israel.» «The only condition for his coming is love for Israel alone. The redemption is already prepared, Mashiach is sleeping here,» Saba used to say. Several tzadikim strongly advised him not to speak of this. But he insisted. Someone once said to him: «So maybe you'll bring him here?» But Saba was firm: «What has happened to you? You must not see him - it is a mortal danger.» And once Saba hinted that he had fallen ill because he had seen the righteous Mashiach. «Saba from Netanya» became famous not only for having thousands of students and followers from all over the world, but also for his scholarship, kindness, and patience toward people, and for his eagerness to help them, whatever difficult situation they found themselves in.

All his years, «Saba from Netanya» preserved a pure, unblemished faith in G-d, sincere in its simplicity and strength of conviction. He recalled with love the moment when he truly realized that Ha-Shem was with him. Once the Nazis released dogs from their chains, setting them upon the Jews. But one of the vicious German shepherds looked at the young rabbi who was crying out to G-d - and bit its own Nazi master! From that moment he knew for certain that G-d was with him, his students recounted.

He was one of the most influential people of the last generation. Thousands of Jews knocked on his door, pleading to be saved, and were saved thanks to his blessings. His students say that teenage boys and girls came to him for advice, and he treated everyone like his own children. He devoted his time and energy to rescuing girls who had become involved with Arabs, and afterward arranged their marriages.

«Saba from Netanya» - a man of G-d, as many called him - was also a visionary: two weeks before his death he told those close to him, «I must leave this world, and I want to say goodbye to everyone,» after which he embraced and kissed everyone farewell.

  Saba mi-Netanya during the Holocaust Once the Nazis gathered small children and elderly people at a train station; little Yosef was among them too. The Nazis ordered them arranged in groups on the platform, and an officer examined and checked each one before giving permission to board. Little Yosef was about to board the train when suddenly a Nazi officer appeared beside him, shouting something in German, while at the same time looking at him sideways and quickly saying in Yiddish: «Don't get on this train, get on the other train quickly,» - and led him out himself, taking him to the front of the line. Later, Yosef learned that everyone who boarded the first train was killed in a nearby death camp. And those who boarded the second train went on to a labor camp and were saved. Such miracles happened to him many times in those terrible years: suddenly a German, a Ukrainian, or a kapo would appear and tell him in Yiddish what to do to be saved. Eliyahu HaNavi He also told how sometimes Eliyahu HaNavi spoke to him clearly, telling him what to do and where to go. Several times Yosef came close to death in those days, but he received Eliyahu HaNavi's advice in many images, forms, and disguises throughout the Holocaust, and that is precisely why he was saved again and again.   A story from a trip to the graves of tzadikim in Turkey A striking story happened with our Silatehilim group on a trip to the graves of tzadikim in Turkey, in the city of Izmir, at the grave of Rabbi Chaim Palache on his yahrzeit. A lavish seudah with grills, fine dishware (usually in such cases people make do with simple disposable plastic dishes), and beautifully arranged gifts for the women, was organized in honor of the tzadik by Avraham (I'll omit his last name for obvious reasons). The Israeli girls in our group struck up a conversation with him and found out that he was from Chadera, from Rabbi Yaniv Assuri. Everyone burst out in wild excitement, exclaiming at once: we too have girls from Gaon Yaniv Assuri! A conversation began. We ate on the run, since other places awaited us according to the trip's itinerary, but the scale of the seudah was memorable. Later, back in Chadera, after telling about a man named Avraham who knew our Rav, I heard a heart-wrenching story. A dollar multimillionaire, having gotten into a very ugly situation and having tried every way to get out of it, turned to Rav Yosef Schwartzman for help. Rav Yosef set certain conditions, and after a while, the multimillionaire was left without a shekel in his pocket, having distributed all his funds as the Rav instructed, and moved to live in another city. After Rav Yosef's death, at the insistence of his new Rav, he settled in Meron, near the grave of the Rashbi - in a small, unassuming little room. Since then he has been collecting unimaginable sums from friends from his «previous life» and traveling around the world, arranging lavish feasts on the yahrzeits of tzadikim. On that trip, many of our women learned from him - from a man - the art of beautifying mitzvot. Avraham's most recent photo is from a trip of the «Yodei Bina» Yeshiva to the Golan, to an IDF combat unit - a lavish meal for the soldiers. So, at the prompting of Rav Yosef Schwartz, he carries out his tikkun in exile... May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!     (From the «Yodei Bina» Yeshiva https://hm-news.co.il/611/)