Bnei Brak – Tens of thousands of haredim flocked to the central city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday morning to take part in the funeral of Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian-Orthodox faction and head of Ponovezh Yeshiva.
Lefkowitz died at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on Monday night, two days after collapsing, (as was first reported here on Vos Iz Neias).
The funeral departed at 10:30 A.M. from the Rabbi’s home at Vilkomirer Street in Bnei Berak.
Police closed down several streets for the event. Due to the heavy heat, the Hatzalah organization handed out water to the public. Police estimated the crowed between 80,000 to 100,000.
The funeral procession began with the reciting of Psalms. Senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis paid their last respects to Rabbi Lefkowitz, including the Rebbe of Ger, the Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman and Hasidic “posek” Rabbi Shmuel Wosner.
In his will, read at the hospital on Monday night, the deceased asked that his two sons be the only ones to eulogize him and that they refrain from praising him too much. His son said that the rabbi treated each student like his own son, and remembered the questions each person asked him, including details on where the person stood when he asked the question.
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said Monday night that “the world of Torah has lost one of its central pillars. The rabbi was one of the generation’s greatest scholars, who was a genius in all treasures of Torah. His modesty and humility were an example to us all.”
Photos: B’Hadrei Haredim, Kikar, EPA, AP
