Biographies of the Tzaddikim
Rav Yitzchok Isaac Chaver (Wildmann) Peh Shlishi LaGra, Yitzchak Isaac Chaver, Yitzchak Eizik Chover, Yitzchak Eizik Chaver (Cheshvan 29, 5613 / 1852 - 172nd Yahrzeit)
Rav Yitzchok Isaac (Eizik) Chover was a master Kabbalist and disciple of Rav Yisroel Shklov the foremost disciple of Rav Eliyahu of Vilna known as the Vilna Gaon or GRA. He was a prolific author and mechaber of many seforim such as Pischei Shaarim on Toras haArizal and Bris Yitzchok on Idra deMMishkana parashas Mishpatim, Shu”t Binyan Olam and Si’ach Yitzchok. One of his talmidim, Rav Yitzchok Kahane, wrote Toldos Yitzchok.
Rav Tzvi Hirsch Be'eros Mayim, Rav Tzvi Hirsch Meshores (Cheshvan 30, 5607 / 1846 - 178th Yahrzeit)
Rav Tzvi Hirsch HaKohen of Rimanov. From the age of fifteen, Tzvi Hirsch began traveling to the court of Rav Menachem Mendel of Rimanov. He became one of the Rebbe’s closest Chassidim and his personal attendant; he thus became know as Rav Tzvi Hirsch Meshores (attendant). After the petira of Rav Naftoli of Ropshitz (another of the closest Chassidim of Rav Menachem Mendel), Rav Tzvi Hirsch returned to Rimanov to accept the mantle of leadership of the Chassidim. His divrei Torah were compiled and published by his son, Rav Yosef, under the name Be’eiros HaMayim. It is comprised of several seforim, all beginning with the word Be’er. For example, the sefer Be’er Lachai Ro’i contains his drushim on Chumash and the Yomim Tovim. Other teachings of his can be found in the sefer Mevasser Tov. His Yahrzeit falls on the 30th of Cheshvan, but since Cheshvan more often has only twenty-nine days, it is generally commemorated on the twenty-ninth.
Rav Osher Fasman (Cheshvan 30, 5764 / 2003 - 21st Yahrzeit)
Rav Osher (Oscar) Fasman was born in Chicago and served as Rav in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Ottowa, Canada, before returning to Chicago. He developed Hebrew Theological College from an afternoon-only school to a full-time Yeshiva, bringing Gedolei Torah as Roshei Yeshiva. He was president of the Yeshiva from 1946 to 1964, and also served as president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council and Rav of Congregation Yehuda Moshe in Lincolnwood, Illinois. His son, Rav Chaim Fasman, was Rosh Kollel in Los Angeles.
Rav Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg Tzitz Eliezer (Cheshvan 30, 5767 / 2006 - 18th Yahrzeit)
Rav Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg was born in Yerushalayim to Rav Yaakov Gedalya who came to Eretz Yisrael from Kovno in the early 1900s. He learned in the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva and developed a very warm bond with Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. Rav Waldenberg wrote his first sefer, Dvar Eliezer, when he was only nineteen. Upon the passing of his mother and later his father, both in the 1960s, he published two separate seforim on the halochos of mourning. Rav Waldenberg got involved with medical ethics during the period that he served as Rav of a shul adjacent to the old location of Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital in downtown Yerushalayim. Among those who attended was Professor Avrohom Steinberg, a pediatric neurologist and head of the Medical Ethics Center at Sha’arei Tzedek, as well as the editor of the Talmudic Encyclopedia. “Doctors who davened at the shul, myself included, started asking him questions. Eventually, he began teaching a weekly medical ethics class for doctors and nurses.” His teshuvos were compiled in his magnum opus, a twenty-one-volume set of responsa entitled Tzitz Eliezer. The first volume of Tzitz Eliezer was published in 1945, when he was not yet thirty. In addition, he authored a book on the laws of sea travel on Shabbos called Shvisa B’yam, a book on the laws of mourning called Ein Ya’akov and a book on legal issues in the modern State called Hilchos Medina. He was also a member of the Bais Din HaGodol where he sat together for many years with Rav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv. Rav and Rebbetzin Waldenberg merited to have one child, a son, Rav Simcha Bunim Waldenberg. Rav Simcha Bunim became a Dayan in the Eida HaChareidis and served as its appointed Rav of the neighborhood of Ezras Torah. He himself was known as a posek muvhok.
