Rav Binyomin Zeilberger zt"l
הרב בנימין זיילברגר זצ"ל
Tishrei 8 , 5766
Rav Binyomin Zeilberger zt"l
Rav Binyomin Zeilberger, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Bais Hatalmud of Bensonhurst (1921-2005). Born in Koenigshaufen, Germany. Shortly after Pesach in 1936, he was sent to learn at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland, due in part to his parents fears of Hitler. He was zocheh to hear a few shmuzzen by Rav Yeruchom before the mashgiach was nifter two months later. In 1939, he traveled with the Mir Yeshiva, first to Vilna, then to Japan and Shanghai. In 1947, he traveled to America to learn in the newly established Mirrer Yeshiva. Soon, he married the daughter of Rav Yisrael Chaim Kaplan, a son-in-law of Rav Yeruchom. After the chasuna, Rav Binyomin joined Yeshiva Bais Hatalmud, which had recently been established by members of the Mir. There he remained as Rosh yeshiva for decades.
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Rav Binyomin Zeilberger was born in 5682/1922 in the small German village of Koenig-Shaufen, not far from Wurzberg. In one of his seforim, Rav Binyomin writes that his father was an ish tom v’yoshor, v’yerei Elokim– “a straight, upright and G-d-fearing person”.
Rav Binyomin was educated in the German-Jewish schools of that time, where he learned both Jewish and secular subjects. Rav Shamshon Raphael Weiss, a German Jew who had learned in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland, was a teacher there. Rav Weiss often sent his students on trips to visit the Mirrer Yeshiva. One of these bochurim told the young Binyomin Zeilberger, fourteen years old at the time, about his trip and the impression it made on him. Binyomin became enamored of the idea of going to learn in Mir.
At that point, Rav Binyomin was at a crossroads: he had to decide which of two German schools he would attend to complete his studies. “If I have to change schools, why shouldn’t I go to the Mirrer Yeshiva, about which I have heard such glowing reports?” he thought.
Soon afterward, his parents realized that the situation for Jews in Hitler’s Germany was deteriorating. They decided it would be a good idea for their son to leave Germany, so they allowed him to go to learn in Mir.
He arrived in Mir after Pesach of 5696/1936. At that time the Mashgiach, Rav Yeruchem Levovitz, was ailing. Nevertheless, the fourteen-year-old bochur from Germany managed to hear several shmuessen from the Mashgiach before his petira two months later. Rav Yeruchem’s countenance and his approach to mussar had a profound impact on the bochur. He attached himself to the great talmidim of the Rav and through them forged a bond to Toras HaMussar of Rav Yeruchem.
As the winds of war gathered over Europe in 1939, Rav Binyomin fled Poland with the Mirrer Yeshiva to independent Vilna, Lithuania. As is known, the Yeshiva ultimately made its way across Russia to Japan and finally settled in Shanghai, where it remained for the duration of the war.
Arriving in America with the Yeshiva in 5707/1947, Rav Binyomin learned in the newly established Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York. He married the daughter of Rav Yisrael Chaim Kaplan, son-in-law of Rav Yeruchem and a Ba'al Mussar who was Rosh Yeshiva and Mashgiach of Bais Medrash Elyon in Monsey. With his marriage, Rav Binyomin became a grandson to Rav Yeruchem Levovitz.
After his chasuna, Rav Binyomin joined the newly established Yeshiva Bais HaTalmud. Within its walls he transmitted Torah and yir’a to generations of talmidim for the rest of his life, vigilant to ensure that the Yeshiva’s unique ruach would remain unchanged from that forged by its founders.
During the last segment of his life, when Rav Binyomin was diagnosed with a terminal illness, the grandeur of a lifetime of Torah and middos was revealed. Although he was often in great pain, family members never heard him complain or cry out in pain. On the contrary, one usually saw him with a smile on his face.
On the seventh of Tishrei 5766/2005, Rav Binyomin Zeilberger was niftar. He was buried on Har HaZeisim next to his illustrious father-in-law, Rav Yisrael Chaim Kaplan.
Zecher tzaddik livrachah.
www.hamodia.com/features/this-day-in-history-7-tishreiseptember-11/