By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yisroel Dov Levanoni, longtime resident of Kfar Chabad, Israel, known for the scale model he created of the Bais Hamikdosh which he presented to the Rebbe, passed away on Wednesday, 20 Av, 5779.
He was 97.
Rabbi Levanoni was born in 1922 in South Czechoslovakia to his parents, Moshe and Yaffa Levanoni.
He survived the Holocaust with great sacrifice to keep the Torah and Mitzvos while in the concentration camps.
As a bachur, he was an assistant to Rabbi Aharon of Belz. When he was 22, he emigrated to Israel, and after his marriage to his wife Sara Fruma, they settled in Jerusalem.
To make a living, he dedicated many long hours to researching the second Bais Hamikdosh according to many different sources. He became a renowned expert on the topic of the second Bais Hamikdosh, and authored the book “The Temple In Jerusalem: A Description of the Second Temple,” on the subject.
In 1987, he began working on a scaled model of the Bais Hamikdosh, based on the Rambam’s specifications, on which he consulted with many Rabbonim to ensure its accuracy.
In 1992, he flew with his replica to the Rebbe in New York, and he merited to go to the Rebbe for a dollar on 26 Adar. During that visit, the Rebbe mentioned to him that the ramp to the Mizbeach was three millimeters off.
Rabbi Levanoni later said that the Rebbe had noticed this error, even though Rabbi Levanoni and many others had gone over the sizing many times before building it.
Many groups would visit the Kfar Chabad village in Israel where he lived, to view the replica.
The levaya will take place today, Wednesday, leaving at 1:30 pm from his home, 53 Rechov Levi Yitzchok in Kfar Chabad, Israel.
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
