By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, Gaon Av Beis Din (Gaavad) of the respected Edah HaChareidis beis din in Jerusalem, passed away on Friday night, 2 Menachem Av 5782.
He was 95.
He was born in Slovakia. His father was a timber merchant who enrolled him in the local secular school in the mornings, and studied Torah with a private melamed in the afternoons.
Before World War II, he escaped Slovakia on a Kindertransport and arrived in London in late May 1939 where he soon became Bar Mitzvah. His father sent him a pair of tefillin through the Red Cross before being murdered. By the time the tefillin arrived, neither of his parents were alive.
Rabbi Weiss continued his education at Yeshivas Toras Emes in Stamford Hill (also known as Schneider’s Yeshiva), where he studied under Rabbi Moshe Schneider OBM. One of his peers at the Yeshiva was Rabbi Moishe Sternbuch, who served alongside him as the Raavad (Rosh Av Beis Din) of Jerusalem.
While in London, Rabbi Weiss regularly learned Tanya with the renowned Mashpia Rabbi Mendel Futerfas OBM. He said that the great advantage of this chavrusa was hearing R’ Mendel’s stories of mesiras nefesh in Sibiria. “He was a living Mussar sefer,” he commented.
He had a close friendship with the Chassidim R’ Benzion Shemtov, R’ Yosef Goldberg and R’ Yerachmiel Binyominson. In his later year, he was in touch with Antwerp’s fellow Chief Rabbi Dovid Moshe Lieberman.
After his marriage, he studied at the Gateshead Kollel under Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. A few years later, Rabbi Weiss moved to London, where he was hired as a maggid shiur at a yeshiva, and as a posek and rav of a shul.
Later, he moved to Belgium, where he served as a maggid shiur at a yeshiva in Wilrijk. In 1967, he was appointed dayan of the Machzike Hadass community of Antwerp.
In 2004, he accepted his new role as Gaavad, leading the large Edah HaChareidis group, which includes a beis din, community, and a kosher certification known for its high standards and simply called the hechsher of the “Badatz.”
Over the year, Rabbi Weiss visited the Rebbe several times, the last of which was on 26 Adar I 5752, a day before the Rebbe suffered a stroke. The Rabbe gave him 2 dollars – one for himself, another for his family and another for rabbonus, adding the wish for longevity “yaarich yamim al mamlachto” (may Hashem lengthen the days of his kingdom).
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
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