Yartzeit of Mashpia Marked in Jerusalem and Crown Heights

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Shneur Haviv/COLlive

Events in both Jerusalem and Crown Heights marked the 22nd Yartzeit of the Ohev Yisroel and Mashpia of Toras Emes and the Chabad community in Yerushalayim, Rabbi Moshe Weber obm.

Following a large event in Jerusalem, Chasidim and Mashpiim – many former students of Rabbi Weber – gathered at Lubavitch Yeshiva Hall in Crown Heights on Monday evening.

The event featured a special guest of honor from Israel, his talmid who still writes and teaches from R’ Moshe’s teachings, Rabbi Ido Yitzchok Weber – Erlich.

The event was MC’d by Rabbi Moshe’s nephew Rabbi Dovid Weber, Rabbi of the Chabad community in Pomona, NY, who recounted childhood memories of Rabbi Moshe.

Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi, Mashpia in 770, spoke about the greatness in Torah and Chassidus of Rabbi Moshe which was combined with great humility, and lessons we can learn from him.

Speakers also included renowned Sofer Rabbi Moshe Klein, Mashpia Rabbi Kuti Feldman, Rabbi Shea Werner, and Rabbi Shneur Zalman Labkowsky – Rosh Yeshiva of 770 Yeshiva.

Closing remarks were delivered by Rabbi Ido Weber, the guest of honor who came especially from Israel for the event. A beloved talmid of Rabbi Moshe who still writes and teaches from his teachings, he noted with admiration the success of the event, and said that the large crowd in attendance is a tribute to how many people were touched by Rabbi Moshe. He noted that this is “something that reflects a phenomenon I encounter at all corners of the globe – I understand in a tangible way the words of sages that ‘great are righteous in their death more than in their lives.'”

Rabbi Ido told participants that the main purpose of the event is absorbing all that is learned from Rabbi Moshe, and applying it to strengthening ourselves in our daily lives.

Rabbi Moshe Weber was born in 1914, the son of a known rabbi in Jerusalem. He was orphaned from his father at two years old, and his mother enrolled him to learn in yeshivat Torat Emet in Jerusalem. In 1946, the Rebbe Rayatz appointed him to be mashpia in the yeshiva, where he taught and advised students for many years. Among R’ Moshe’s many merits is the establishment of the tefilin stand at the kotel after the Six-day war. R’ Moshe tended to the tefilin stand by himself, with only occasional help from other Chabad chasidim (it was later taken over by Chabad).

R’ Moshe was known to many ba’alei tshuva and others who enjoyed his hospitality for Shabbat and festival meals in his modest home in Meah Shearim. Unfortunately, he and his wife were childless, but they had many “spiritual” children. R’ Moshe could not be limited to one yeshiva, he opened himself to all streams and to all Jews. He was well known in Meah Shearim as the “go-to” person if an individual Jew or Jewess, non-observant, wandered into the neighborhood looking for hospitality. He was also a talmud-chacham, well versed in Talmud, chasidus and poskim, and exceedingly humble. He authored a volume of explanations on Chumash, the “Yarim Moshe.”

Many are the students and beneficiaries of this humble but wise man, who constantly sacrificed himself for others and bestowed kindness on others. His talmid muvhak was R’ Ido Weber, who still lives in Meah Shearim and writes and teaches from R’ Moshe’s teachings. R’ Moshe passed away in the year 2000. May his memory be blessed!