Torah Celebrated on Two Coasts

Family members, friends and admirers of the late Rabbi Mordechai Meir Hakohen Bryski obm will be marking the upcoming first yahrtzeit of the beloved family patriarch, Tamim and Askan with two separate events, on two different dates, at two different locations.

The first will be the Siyum, or completion, of a new Sefer Torah which is being written in Rabbi Bryski’s honor, to take place on the eve of the actual yahrtzeit – Yud-daled Teves, corresponding to Wednesday evening, December 26, 2012 – at the Bryski residence in Crown Heights.

The second event will be the grand “hachnosa,” or dedication/induction ceremonies, for that Torah, to take place on Bais Shevat – corresponding to Sunday, January 13, 2013 – at Chabad of Agoura Hills in the Conejo Valley, California.

The two events represent the culmination of a project that enjoyed wide participation on the part of many individuals and families who stepped forward to dedicate letters, words, psukim and/or parshiyos in the new Torah.

There was particularly strong representation in the campaign by members of the Chabad of the Conejo community, under the direction of Rabbi Bryski’s son, Shliach Rabbi Moshe Bryski, to which the elder Rabbi Bryski was a frequent visitor and where he served as a consistent source of encouragement, insight and inspiration for many.

Shortly before his passing, in spite of failing health, Rabbi Bryski flew out to California to address the assembled at the Grand Opening festivities for Chabad of the Conejo’s new Center for Jewish Life. Chabad of Agoura Hills was thus a natural choice as home for the new Torah being written in his honor.

Rabbi Mordechai Meir, (affectionately known to many as “Reb Mottel”) was born in the shtetl of Chmielnik, Poland, where he attended the Lubavitcher Cheder founded under the auspices of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. In later years, he attended the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Otwock during the time of the Previous Rebbe’s sojourn there.

With the outbreak of World War II and German invasion of Poland, young Mottel was on the run for an extended period of time until he reunited with many of his Otwock alumni at a Lubavitcher Yeshiva established in Vilna, Lithuania. From there he was among the fortunate survivors to receive special visas from the Japanese consul, allowing passage across Russia to Japan, where they stayed for a period of time until forced to move on to Shanghai, China.

The thirty or so orphaned bochurim who found themselves exiled in “Shanchai” established a branch of Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim in that wayward land, where they remained for some five years until the war was over. While there, they derived strength and inspiration from the powerful messages they would receive from Previous Rebbe through third-party channels.

Upon arriving in New York after the war, Reb Mordechai Meir continued his studies at Tomchei Tmimim at 770 Eastern Parkway, after which he married Ethel Eckhaus and started a family which would grow to eleven children.

For some 25 years he served as a melamed at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Bedford Stuyvesant (aka “Bedford and Dean”) where he was deeply beloved and respected by hundreds of students – many of whom speak fondly of their experiences in his 5th and 6th grade classrooms to this day.

In later years, when his earnings as a melamed were not nearly sufficient to meet his large family’s needs, Rabbi Bryski received the blessings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to pursue a career in real estate – as long as he would maintain some form of involvement in chinuch, which he did. In the 1970s, Reb Mottel was appointed as part of a task force to help make home ownership in Crown Heights accessible to Jewish families, which he did for scores upon scores of new homeowners.

While Rabbi Mordechai Meir Hakohen Bryski’s legacy is a multilayered one, many remember him simply as an “Ehrlicher Yid,” a “Chasiddishe Yid” and an “Emsediker Yid” – a sincere, sweet, down-to-earth, practical and approachable man with eyes of wisdom, a smile of warmth and a heart of gold. His distinctive manner of davening – interspersed with his classic soulful nigunim – is a phenomenon his fellow mispallelim at the shuls he frequented will not soon forget.

Throughout his entire life – up to and including his last days – Rabbi Bryski lived and sacrificed for Torah. The writing and dedication of a new Sefer Torah is thus seen as a most fitting tribute l’iluy nishmaso, to his eternal memory, and a most appropriate celebration of his living legacy.

The Bryski Family invites the entire community to attend the Siyum and to be among those to inscribe the final letters in this momentous Torah on Wednesday, December 26 – between the hours of 6:30 and 9:00 pm – at 390 Crown Street in Brooklyn, New York.

The family further invites those on the west coast to participate in the “Hachnosas Sefer Torah”- dedication festivities – on Sunday, January 13, 2013, commencing at 1:00 pm with a police-escorted Chupah procession from Reyes Adobe Park to nearby Chabad of Agoura Hills, followed by the dedication and crowning ceremony, music/Hakafos and a buffet lunch in the courtyard of the Center for Jewish Life.

Anyone who would like to dedicate a letter or word in the Sefer Torah may still do so by visiting www.ChabadConejo.com/Torah. For further information, call (818) 991-0991.