Rav Dovid Matisyohu Rabinowitz was born in Shedlitz, Poland, on Erev Chanuka 5689/1928. His father was Rav Yechiel Yehoshua, later Rebbe of Biala. The child was named Dovid after his great-grandfather, Rav Nosson Dovid of Shidlovtza, and Matisyohu was added since his bris was on the seventh day of Chanuka.
As a small child, he woke up early to learn Torah, and he davened with fiery intent. During the difficult years of the war, his father was exiled to Russia. Young Dovid Matisyohu, along with two of his brothers and his sister, escaped to Tehran, Iran. The children came to Eretz Yisrael on the transport known as Yaldei Tehran, “the children of Tehran”.
When Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezher Rav, heard that the children of the Biala Rebbe had come to Eretz Yisrael, he made a special effort to arrange placements for them that would ensure they would lead Torah lives. Rav Dovid Matisyohu went to the Ponevezh Yeshiva, where he was noted for his constant learning and his warm tefillos; he was often asked to lead the tefillos on Yomim Tovim.
Rav Dovid Matisyohu got married and later received semicha from Rav Yosef Tzvi Kalisch of Skernevitz, the Rav of Bnei Brak, a scion of the Vorka dynasty.
Rav Yechiel Yehoshua arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 5707/1947 and was reunited with his children. He began rebuilding the Biala dynasty after the Holocaust.
After the petira of his father on the 21st of Shevat 5742/1982, Rav Dovid Matisyohu founded his court in Bnei Brak, where he spread Torah and Chassidus with passion and fire. He had great dveikus in tefilla and avoda.
Rav Dovid Matisyohu spent one Shabbos every year, during the Three Weeks, in the Old City of Yerushalayim, near the Kosel.
He was niftar on the 25th of Tishrei 5758/1997 at the age of sixty-nine.
His sons, ybl”c, are: Rav Yaakov Menachem, the Biala Rebbe in Bnei Brak; Rav Shmuel Yair, who serves as Rav in his brother’s Bais Medrash in Bnei Brak; Rav Avrohom Yerachmiel, the Rebbe of Ostrova-Biala in Yerushalayim; Rav Yirmiyohu, the Rebbe of Biala-Lentchna in Beit Shemesh; and Rav Aharon Shlomo Chaim Elozor, the Biala Rebbe in Boro Park.
His sons-in-law are Rav Yehuda Zev Volf Kornreich, the Shidlovtza Rebbe in Yerushalayim, and Rav Yaakov Hager, son of the Seret-Vizhnitzer Rebbe.
Some of Rav Dovid Matisyohu’s Divrei Torah were published with the titles Orchos Dovid and Lahavas Dovid. Zechuso yogen oleinu.
www.hamodia.com/features/this-day-in-history-26-tishreiseptember-30/26 Tishrei
