Living Legacy: Rav Elchonon Wasserman, zt”l, Hy”d

Yehuda Alter

The eleventh of Tammuz marks the 82nd yohrtzeit of the great Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elchonon Wasserman, zt”l, Hy”d, who was murdered at the hands of the Nazis, ym”sh, after returning from America to be with his talmidim. 

He was born in the Lithuanian town of Birzh in the year 1875, and he learned in the Telzer Yeshiva under Rav Shimon Shkop, and the rosh Yeshiva, Rav Eliezer Gordon. After a number of years, he went to learn under Rav Chaim Brisker. He married the daughter of Rav Meir Atlas, one of the great Rabbonim of Lita, who was then the rov of Salant. 

In 1903, he established his first yeshiva in Amtzilav, and in 1907, he went to learn in the Kollel Kodashim of the Chofetz Chaim in Radin, and there he became one of the most ardent talmidim of the Chofetz Chaim.

 In 1910, he became a rosh yeshiva in Brisk, and in the following year, he took the help of Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovitch, which became a legendary mokom Torah, as we will see.  

In 1938, he took a long journey to America, and, knowing what was transpiring in Europe, he nevertheless made his way back to be at the side of his talmidim as  the war was breaking out. 

He was murdered along with a number of other talmidim of the yeshiva, including two of his sons. As he was being led to his fate, he told his companions: “Clearly, min haShomayim, they see us as tzaddikim who must atone for Klal Yisroel with our bodies. We must now do teshuvah, because our time is short. We must remember to truly sanctify the name of Hashem, to go with our heads held high... the fire that will consume us is the very same fire that will rebirth Klal Yisroel.” 

Rav Aaron Kreiser was an alter Mirer who learned in Baranovitch in his youth, and would describe for all his life the aura of Rav Elchonon and of the yeshiva.  

“The hasmodoh that was in Baranovich did not exist anywhere else,” Rav Aharon later related. “Mamish day and night, k’pshuto. I saw this and I experienced it personally. There was one solitary sefer Ketzos Hachoshen in Baranovitch, and it was taken for most of the day. So, one night, I decided to wake up at three in the morning to spend some time alone with the Ketzos, thinking that I would be there alone. How surprised was I to see many bachurim learning in the beis medrash. We were young and energetic, and we utilized it to the maximum.”  

He also spoke of the incredible presence of Rav Elchonon, zt”l, Hy”d, which itself had a transformative influence on the bachurim: “The bochurim there were not innocents. They had ideas and opinions about all kinds of things. But when they arrived in Baranovitch and came face-to-face with the truth that shone from the Rav Elchonon—everything just faded away. When you encounter the truth, everything else melts away and disappears.”

Indeed, it was the truth and the light exuded by Rav Elchonon that made him one of the most important figures of the prewar Torah world—a light that was so brutally extinguished this week 82 years ago.