Mir Rosh Yeshiva Sang Niggunim

By COLlive and Hamodia

The Torah world is mourning the passing of Rabbi Aryeh Leib Finkel, renowned Rosh Yeshivas Mir Brachfeld in the Israeli city of Modiin Illit, on Tuesday night.

He was 85.

Exceedingly modest, he devoted his life to helping bochurim and worried about each student as though he were his own son. His tefillah was renowned for its deep emotion and clear expression of deep yiras Shamayim.

Rabbi Finkel, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the haredi Degel HaTorah party, served as the longtime shliach tzibbur for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem.

The levayah began Wednesday morning in Mir Brachfeld and later in the afternoon from Yeshivas Mir in Yerushalayim, en route to Har Hamenuchos, where he was buried.

The passing has reminded Lubavitcher singer Yoni Shlomo about an encounter he had with the Rosh Yeshiva last year when he sang for Mir Brachfeld’s summer program.

Before appearing on stage, Rabbi Finkel asked Shlomo to come up to his modest apartment. “He wanted me to sing a few niggunim,” recalled Shlomo.

“I sang a several Chabad niggunim, simcha and deveikus ones,” he said. “I won’t forget how he kept looking at me while I sang the Rebbe‘s Tzama Lecha Nafshi.”

While singing an upbeat niggun, Rabbi Finkel held Yoni Shlomo’s hand with great excitement. “After the niggunim, we spoke about Chassidus and Chabad,” he concluded.

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Baruch Dayan Haemes.