BDE: Rabbi Baruch Weisbecker, Head Of Beis Matisyahu, Passed Away At 83

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Baruch Weisbecker, the head of the Beis Matisyahu yeshiva in Bnei Brak, passed away early  Friday at the age of 83.

Rabbi Weisbecker had founded the yeshiva in 1982 and led the yeshiva until his death, educating thousands of disciples.  He was also a member of the Council of Torah Sages (Moetze Dedolei Hatorah), having been appointed in 2020 by Rabbi Chaim Kanievski.

Born in 1940 in Tel Aviv, Rabbi Baruch Weisbecker studied at Kfar Haroeh under Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neriyah, who later recommended that he move to Bnei Brak to study at the Ponevezh Yeshiva.  Rabbi Weisbecker was a student of the great Roshei Yeshiva, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach and Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky. He later edited the shiurim of Rabbi Rozovsky and they were then published as Shiurei Rav Shmuel.

Rabbi Baruch married Sara Lea Drabkin in the early 1960s and is survived by her as well as by his children.

Rabbi Weisbecker began his teaching career as a Rabbi at the Kol Torah Yeshiva located in Bayit Vegan, and later founded Beis Matisyahu as well as two other yeshivas, one in Hemed (headed by his son-in-law Rabbi Menachem Yaakovson) and the other, which later closed, in Tel Aviv.

It is related that when Rabbi Weisbecker wished to open the new yeshiva, 125 of his students at Kol Torah immediately registered to join the new initiative. At this point Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah) told him that a certain yeshiva in Jerusalem had not been successful as it took its student body from Etz Chaim. Rav Baruch immediately told his disconsolate students that he would not accept anyone from Kol Torah, even though this could have endangered the future of the yeshiva. Two students refused to accept his refusal and slept in an adjacent shul while studying in Beis Matisyahu until a year had passed and then Rav Baruch accepted them.

Rabbi Baruch Weisbecker was known to be extremely dedicated to the spiritual development of his students. In the yeshiva he took a more stringent approach encouraging his students to pursue Torah study unremittingly. Students are not allowed to carry any kind of cellphone, learn to drive, daven outside the yeshiva or smoke (in the younger shiurim).

Rabbi Weisbecker’s study approach was to favor Iyun, a more investigative analysis of subject matter as it appears throughout the Talmud, rather than Bekiyus -covering ground according to the various masechtot of the Talmud. The yeshiva is considered one of the most prominent yeshivas in Israel’s Torah world.

In 2019, Rabbi Baruch Weisbecker took a leave from the yeshiva due to severe back pain, and it was later discovered that he had a tumor. However, prior to his passing, he had undergone surgery to remove it.

The levaya took place in Bnei Brak at 10 AM on Friday. May his memory be blessed