הרב שלום נח ברזובסקי

Rav Shalom Noach Berezovsky (14 Av 5671/8 August 1911–7 Av 5760/8 August 2000), the Slonimer Rebbe of Yerushalayim, is known by the name of his sefarim as the Netivot Shalom. He was born to Rav Moshe Avraham Berezovsky, head of the kehilla in Baranovich, and to Tzvia, daughter of Rav Asher Weisstein. He learned in Yeshivat Torat Chesed in Baranovich, founded and led by Rav Avraham Weinberg, the Beit Avraham, and was appointed to write down his rebbe’s Torah; he received semicha from Rav Meir Karelitz, and was the chavruta of the Beit Avraham’s son, Rav Shlomo David Yehoshua Weinberg. In 5693/1933 he married Chava, daughter of Rav Avraham Weinberg, the Birkat Avraham, and in 5695/1935 he came to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Tiberias. English sources give his name as Sholom Noach Berezovsky.

After his marriage he taught in Yeshivat Or Torah in Tiberias, and in 5700 he was called to serve as rosh yeshiva of Tomchei Temimim in Tel Aviv. In Cheshvan 5702, when word arrived of what was unfolding in Europe, he said: “If it is not in our hands to save the bodies, let us save the spirit” — and he left his post at Tomchei Temimim and founded Yeshivat Beit Avraham, which he headed for thirty-nine years. Almost all the Slonimer chassidim of Europe were killed by the Nazis in the Shoah, and the chassidut as it stands today was rebuilt from those who had settled in Eretz Yisrael; he later fixed the day his chavruta Rav Shlomo David Yehoshua was murdered as a day of remembrance for the Shoah and for the Slonim kehillot that perished in it. On 2 Iyar 5741 he was crowned Admor in his father-in-law’s lifetime.

He stood at the head of Chinuch Atzmai and the Vaad HaYeshivot and sat on the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah, but in the 1980s he kept himself out of the machloket between the Litvish and the chassidic camps and withdrew from the Moetzet; when Degel HaTorah was formed in 5749 he did not enter the elections and instructed his chassidim, “the wise man in that time will be silent.” He opposed handing over parts of Eretz Yisrael, and after the liberation of Yerushalayim in the Six Day War he delivered a drasha on the obligation to give thanks to Hashem for returning the Kotel HaMaaravi to the hand of Klal Yisrael; by his directive Slonimer chassidim do not say tachanun on Yom Yerushalayim.

He wrote the seven volumes of Netivot Shalom, which is learned widely well beyond chassidic circles, and the kuntres HaHaruga Alecha on the Shoah. He brought out the sefarim of the Slonimer Admorim from manuscript, and to Zichron Kadosh he joined the essay B’Sod Kedoshim on the Shoah as seen through chassidut. He was niftar on 7 Av 5760 and was buried on Har HaZeitim; his son Rav Shmuel Berezovsky, author of Darchei Noam, was appointed Admor in his place.