Rebbetzin Haya Miriam Elberg passed away on the 24th of Tevet (January 18) at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn.
The deceased was the widow of the late Rabbi Simha Elberg, who for many years served as chairman of the executive of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis and as editor of the well known Torah journal HaPardes. Rabbi Elberg was not only a Gaon in Torah, but also a brilliant lecturer and writer in Hebrew and in Yiddish. He published Hiddushei Torah, Torah thoughts, articles, essays about prominent rabbis, and memories of Jewish religious life and the study of Torah in Poland.
Rebbetzin Elberg was born in Harbin (in northernManchuria, at the time part of Russia, now a province of China) where her father, Rabbi Yehuda Selig Slutzker, known in his youth as one of the best students of the Slobodka Yeshiva, taught in the community’s Talmud Torah and was very active in the community’s Jewish life. One of his many communal duties was to prepare the local Jewish calendar.
During World War II she lived in Shanghai, where she made the acquaintance of and married Rabbi Simha Elberg, who had come to the city with the students of the Mir Yeshiva who had fled from Europe.
Rebbetzin Elberg was a very educated woman. She spoke several languages and possessed a wide general and fine Jewish knowledge. She earned a Ph.D. at New York University and taught at that institution. Later she taught at Touro College. She was of great help to her husband in his varied and wide-ranging acitivities and was a partner in his many good deeds, particularly in his efforts to disseminate the study of Torah and to strengthen Jewish religious observance, as well as in his support of Torah institutions and individual rabbinic scholars.
After her husband’s death (7th of Heshvan, 1995) she carried on some of his work. At Rabbi Elberg’s death two new books of his were in print: Einei HaEdah, a collection of essays about Gedolei Yisrael, and the sixth volume of Shalmei Simha, the series of his Hiddushei Torah. Thanks to her endeavors the printing was completed, with the addition of articles describing the life and work of Rabbi Elberg.
Rabbi Elberg did much to promote the study of the Daf Yomi. In articles and in speeches he called upon Jews to join the study of the Daf. He himself conducted for many years a Daf Yomi Shiur at the Boro Park branch of Agudath Israel.
After Rabbi Elberg’s death, Rebbetzin Elberg was instrumental in securing the continued existence of the Shiur.
The Shiur, which is now being taught by Rabbi Yissachar Katz, continued for some time at the Agudath Israel branch. Several years ago, when the branch was closed, the Shiur moved to the nearby “Sefardishe Shul.” The participants in the Shiur observe the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Elberg. On the seventh of Cheshvan (which is also the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Shapira, the creator of the Daf Yomi) Rabbi Katz speaks about the personality and the greatness in Torah of Rabbi Elberg and one of the Shiur participants says Kaddish.
Rebbetzin Elberg also continued the publication of HaPardes, not as a monthly as it had been for many decades but as a quarterly. She not only defrayed all the expenses but personally urged rabbinic scholars to participate in it. In each issue she reprinted two contributions by Rabbi Elberg; a leading article about the state or problem of Torah Jewry and Hiddushei Torah.
We will write about the extraordinary support of Rebbetzin Elberg for Yeshivot in the Land of Israel in the next article.
(To be concluded)
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 6, 2004 p. 73
The late Rebbetzin Elberg had established Battei Midrash in memory of her husband in three Yeshivot in the land of Israel: The Mir Yeshiva and the Or Elhanan Yehiva in Jerusalem, and the Gerrer Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
On the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Simha Elberg, rabbis associated with these Yeshivot and some of their students gather at the grave of Rabbi Elberg on Har HaMenuhot in Jerusalem to pray and say Tehillim. A Kel Malei is made and Kaddish is recited. These yearly gatherings are also attended by relatives of the Elbergs as well as American friends and students of Rabbi Elberg who now reside in Israel. This is followed in the afternoon by a Siyym and a Seudat Mitzva (Mitzva meal) at which rabbis speak about Rabbi Elberg’s life and achievements and the Elbergs’ great support of Torah institutions in Israel.
The latest Siyyum and Se’udat Mitzvah were held at the home of Rabbi Nathan Zvi Finkel, the head of the Mir Yeshiva, Rebbetzin Elberg who used to come to Jerusalem for the Yahrzeil of her husband, was not able to do so this time on account of her illness. The rabbis present at the Mitzva meal spoke of her love and support of Torah study and prayed for her recovery.
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On Tuesday, the 26th of Tevet, (January 20) Rebbetzin Elberg’s coffin arrived at the Lod airport. It was accompanied by her brother-in-law, Rabbi Petahya Weinberger of New Rochelle and his son Shemuel Aaron. Students of the Gerrer Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, led by their Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Nachum Rothstein, were waiting at the airport. Rabbi Rothstein eulogized the Rebbetzin
From the airport the coffin was brought to the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. A multitude of people filled the street in front of the building which houses the Beit Midrash Shalmei Simha, named in memory of Rabbi Elberg, Rabbi Yitzhak HaeEzrahi, a Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Chadash, Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva Ohr Elhanan, Rabbi Avraham Yosef Leizerson, chairman of Chinuch Atzmai and Rabbi Shlomo Greenbaum delivered eulogies. All the speakers stressed the fine human qualities of the deceased and her generous support of Torah institutions. Rabbi Chadash, who had recently been in the U.S. spoke of his visit to Rebbetzin Elberg at Maimondes Hospital.
Several speakers noted that although Rebbetzin Elberg had no children, the hundreds and thousands of students who study Torah at the Battei Misrash she built and supported are considered her sons as our sages said (Sanhedrin 19b), “He who teaches Torah to the son of his friend is regarded by Scripture as if he had begotten him.” Rabbi Greenbaum recited the Kel Malei and Kaddish.
The coffin ws then brought to Har HaMenuhot where Rabbi Elberg is buried Many followed the coffin in a bus that had been rented for that purpose.
Darkness had set in when Rebbetzin Elberg’s body was lowered into a grave next to that of her husband.
Rabbi Petahya Weinberger recited Kaddish and said a few words. He related that Nashim Tzidkaniyot (Righteous and charitable women) were sitting day and night at Rebbetzin Elberg’s bedside in the hosptial, and he thanked those present for having accompanied the coffin to the cemetery to pay their last respects.
Tehei Nishmatah Tzrurah bi’Tzror Hachayim.
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 13, 2004