By COLlive reporter
The 20th yartzeit of Rabbi Levi Bistritzky OBM, the Shliach of the Rebbe who served as Chief Rabbi of the northern holy Israeli city of Tzfas, was marked on Tuesday, the 19th of Menachem Av.
Rabbi Bistritzky was born in New York and was sent by the Rebbe to learn in Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Montreal, Canada, following his Bar Mitzvah.
He excelled in learning, becoming proficient in piskei halacha, specifically in gittin, chalitza, shechita and bedika. He received smicha and did shimush at the Beis Din of Montreal.
At 18, he was tested on all of Shas by Montreal’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung OBM. A short while later, he married the daughter of the chossid Rabbi Chaim Menachem Teichtel of Jerusalem.
He published his first sefer a little after his wedding. Mareh Mekomos Vetziunim Lekuntres Acharon on Shulchan Aruch was the first of a set of 10. In 5736/1976, he was sent by the Rebbe to Tzfas, where he took an active role in rabbonus and kashrus.
Initially, he served as rov of the Chabad community there and later served as Chief Rabbi of the city. He was known for his great erudition and halachic knowledge. Together with the Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, he made a veritable revolution in religious observance and kashrus in the city Rabbinate.
Word of his hechsher, known for its strictness and high standard, quickly spread throughout the frum communities of northern Israel, Hamodia wrote at the time. He was a popular, well-loved figure in Tzfas and throughout the Galilee.
People from all segments of the community saw him as their spiritual leader and approached him for halachic advice or assistance, which he, in his typically pleasant manner, dispensed freely, Hamodia wrote.
This week, Tzfas Mayor Shuki Ohana noted how it was clear to him that residents still miss Rabbi Bistritzky even 20 years after his passing at the age of 54.
He noted how the rabbi was “a friend to all residents” and how it often sees the photo of Rabbi Bistritzky hanging in stores and businesses around the city.
Label Bistritsky, z”l, a really wonderful person, would go out his way to help people. He used to sell Kosher chickens in the New Jersey & Philadelphia areas as the butchers weren’t Shomer Shabbos. He always had a good Torah Vort. Levi, z”l must’ve been somehow related