By COLlive reporter
Hagaon Harav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, the eldest Rosh Yeshiva in the holy land of Israel and a member of the Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael that guided the frum Litvish political party, Degel Hatorah, passed away on Thursday, 11 Cheshvan, 5784.
He was 94.
He was born in Petach Tikvah in 5689 (1929) and moved during his childhood to Jerusalem. He learned in Yeshivas Chevron until the age of 28 and then married the daughter of the Yeshiva’s Mashgiach, Rabbi Meir Chodosh OBM.
In 5737 (1977), Rabbi Ezrachi established a new yeshiva dedicated to the ways of Slabodka. It was based in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood in Jerusalem. In recent years, it moved to Modi’in Illit.
He wrote many volumes of Birkas Mordechai on the Shas and the Torah and served as a member of the Nesius of Mifal HaShas and other Torah organizations.
Despite his ranking in the Litvish world, Rabbi Ezrachi had Chabad connections.
In 5732, he went to 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights to participate in a farbrengen of the Rebbe on Yud Shvat, and was seated on the bima, near the Rebbe’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary (the Rashag). He also merited to go into Yechidus with the Rebbe at that time.
Over the years, he visited and spoke at Chabad institutions during his travels. He gave a shiur at the Chabad Kollel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, inaugurated the Chabad Mikvah in Drezden, Germany, and addressed the Yarchei Kallah in Kfar Chabad, Israel.
During a trip to Kivrei Tzadikim in Poland, he told his students that the world of Chassidus is a “marvelous world” and that “serving Hashem has been centralized in the world of Chassidus.”
Videos online showed him singing the Chabad nigun Tzama Lech Nafshi with his students.
Rabbi Ezrachi has been in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in recent months. His condition had begun to improve, but on Thursday morning, it took a sudden turn for the worse and he passed.
He is survived by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and his brother Rabbi Yitzchak Ezrachi, Rosh Yeshivah of Mir-Yerushalayim.
He was predeceased by his wife Rebbetzin Shulamis Ezrachi OBM.
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
BDE