HaGaon HaRav Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Margulies ob”m Passes Away

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

HaGaon HaRav Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Margulies of blessed memory, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn for over sixty years, passed away this past Shabbos. He was a visionary mechanech and Rosh Yeshiva who had educated thousands of Bnei Torah and learned Baal Habatim. He was 97 years old.

Rav Margulies was born in Horinch, Romania in 1924.  His father, Rav Menachem Mendel Margulies hy”d, formerly of Kahlin, was chosen to be the Rav of the town after World War One by the Vizhnitz Rebbe.  He was an enormous Talmid Chochom who write prolifically (He had studied in the Yeshiva in Ganitsch.) He also wrote hagaos on the responsa work entitled Shaarei Tzedek.  During the second World War, his father and the rest of his family hy”d were taken to Auschwitz and murdered.  Rav Menachem Mendel and his family were chosen for the first transport out.

The Rav hid in his house an entire trunk of Chiddushei Torah, aggadata, and responsum. He sent his wife and children to the nearby village of Manes Tritz, for safety.  His wife, however, went back to Horinch – as she threw her lot with her husband. As he was boarding the train he recited out loud, “I accept upon myself this galus and all the yissurin b’ahavah!  A person must live in simcha.” He passed away al kiddush hashem on on the 16 of Sivan 5704.  Rav Lipa Margulies, however, survived miraculously.

Rav Lipa learned in the Yeshiva in Tetsch, in the early forties.  He arrived in Auschwitz at age seventeen.   Rav Lipa’s other siblings unfortunately were murdered by the Nazis y”s.  His eldest brother, was Rav Yisroel Tzvi Elimelech who had received Smicha was killed just a short time before liberation.  His younger brother, Yehudah Eliezer, was murdered at the age of fourteen but had survived for a short time in Auschwitz. Four of his sisters were murdered as well: two in Auschwitz and two in a concentration camp in Germany.

Rav Margulies was a figure that transcended two worlds in a number of ways.  On the one hand, he hailed from Sighet, Romania, and was the scion of a Chassidish Rabbinic family. On the other hand, upon his arrival on the shores of the United States he decided to continue his Torah education in Yeshiva Torah voDaas, where he became close with HaGaon HaRav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l and then at Beis Medrash Elyon under HaGaon HaRav Reuvain Gruzofsky zt”l.

Rav Margulies had educated thousands and thousands of litvish Yeshiva bochurim in the Yeshivos that he had established and in his camp in upstate New York called Camp Silver Lake.  He molded them into remarkable Bnei Torah.

In 1976, Rav Marguiles started the Torah Temimah Yeshiva which was originally called Torah V’Daas of Flatbush.  Eventually, the Yeshiva opened a number of branches including, on account of the changing demographics of the Jewish community in Brooklyn – one in Lakewood, New Jersey. Rav Margulies was the founder of Yeshiva Yam Hatalmud in Brooklyn, Yeshiva Torah Temimah of Lakewood, and Machaneh Mesivta of Silver Lake in Woodridge, New York.  The Yeshivos he had started were remarkable institutions of Torah that truly produced.

Rav Marguiles was a holocaust survivor who witnessed not only the destruction of his people, but also the destruction of the Torah world around him.  His father had established a Yeshiva in Horinch prior to the war, and he had witnessed its destruction.  A young Rav Marguiles was imprisoned by the Nazis and their lackies in a camp, spent some time in a DP camp after they were liberated, and then joined some Yeshiva students in Paris, France before coming to America.

After having arrived in America, Rabbi Margulies was devastated by what he was seeing.  Children of religious families were buying into assimilation by the masses.  He took it upon himself to create and further promulgate a Torah true environment similar to one that had protected Torah Jews in eastern Europe.  Rav Margulies plunged into this vision completely.   He had succeeded in helping to foster a Torah revolution.

Rabbi Margulies’s concern for the Torah growth of his talmidim was all-consuming.  His thinking in his establishing of his summer camp was similar in that regard.  Until now, the Torah camps in general had combined Torah learning with a fun summer experience.  Rabbi Margulies wanted something different.  Camp Silver Lake was one of the very first “learning camps.”  Once again, Rabbi Margulies had launched a revolution.  The camp had established a reputation for serious learning on a very high level.  It soon influenced other camps as well, which helped develop and further strengthened the Masmidim programs of other camps.

Not everything, however, was perfect or ideal.  The Avos themselves had, at times, made what appear to be miscalculations that could have chas v’shalom jeopardized the future continuity of Klal Yisroel.  Avrohom Avinu had to be told to listen to the wise advice of Sara Imeinu in ensuring that Yishmael not be kept around Yitzchok Avinu.  Yitzchok Avinu, as well, according to the Midrash, was unduly influenced by Aisav’s venison and did not see the dangers of the future.

There were those, even among Rav Margulies’s many admirers, who felt that he was too overzealous in his vision to ensure the reputation and continuity of the remarkable Torah institutions he had built, and to disbelieve accounts of grave dangers in his institutions. And, sometimes, other Gedolim perceive the true depth of such dangers – whereas others do not.  Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l had argued with Rabbi Margulis on such a matter.  Boruch Hashem, however, there were wise Baal HaBatim involved in his Yeshiva who took the necessary steps to ensure that Rav Margulies’s vision continue, while still ensuring that, to some extent, those who were harmed or had tried sounding an alarm were vindicated.

The efforts of these dedicated Baal Habatim and family members made sure that Rav Margulies work and lifetime of dedication to Torah and its continuity, not only remain alive but thrive and prosper.

Rav Margulies’s lifetime of effort bore unprecedented fruit.  His talmidim took the helm of many Kehilos and Yeshivos themselves.  The chiddushei Torah that his many, many talmidim were to eventually produce – created another Torah explosion.   The Torah world that we live in now, was to a significant extent built by Rav Margulies.  And it is not just Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva that he created.  There are thousands and thousands of Baalei Batim, talmidim of Rav Margulies themselves, whose dedication to learning has changed the face of Torah in America.

Former disciples related that he was always concerned with the welfare of talmidim and spent vast sums to bring the best educators to teach Torah in his yeshiva. Rav Lipa was intimately involved in the progress of each and every talmid.

Torah Temimah has produced generations of stellar talmidim including rosh yeshivas and Torah educators.

In 2005, his devoted wife, Rebbetzin Devorah Margulies had passed away.   His eldest son, who had been his right hand in the Yeshiva, Rav Menachem Mendel Margulies also passed away before him  in April, 2020. Rav Marguelies is survived by his children, Rav and Mrs. Binyomin Margulies, Rav and Mrs. Yisroel Margulies, Rav and Mrs. Yisroel Benedikt, Rav and Mrs. Shmuel Shlesinger, and Rav and Mrs. Mayer Pinkovics.

Yehei zichro boruch.

The levayah will take place this morning at 11:30 AM at the yeshiva, 507 Ocean Pkwy, Brooklyn NY. The call-in number is 712- 432 -8773.  Then dial the pin number 3677652.

The author can be reached at [email protected]