[Photos below.] Earlier this week, thousands of Vizhnitzer Chassidim gathered in Yerushalayim to mark 70 years of chinuch under the guidance of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rav Moshe Yehoshua Hager. The dais featured over 300 rabbonim, heads of mosdos, and mechanchim.
Seventy years ago, a dark cloud descended on European Jewry. The future was uncertain and ominous. But specifically then, from the darkness, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe shlit”a, then a young man but known as a tremendous illui, established the Vizhnitzer Yeshivah, headed by his father, the Imrei Chaim, in his hometown of Grosswardein. This yeshiva was a perpetuation of the famous yeshiva of the Ahavas Yisrael, which had been established years earlier in the city of Vizhnitz and which had been shut down due to the war.
The Imrei Chaim, together with the current Rebbe, delivered the shiurei iyun, tested the students, and showered them with love, ignoring the tense situation in the outside world. They learned Torah until the Holocaust befell Hungarian Jewry, when they miraculously escaped.
The Rebbe travelled to Eretz Yisroel and became the rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva there, which was under the direction of his uncle, the Damesek Eliezer, who had previously served as the rosh yeshiva in the city of Vizhnitz. With tireless efforts and a burning love, the Rebbe tended to his young charges, most of them orphans who had escaped the inferno, enveloping them with warmth while at the same time demanding of them constant growth in their study of Torah and mussar and their avodas Hashem.
“It is incumbent upon us,” the Rebbe would constantly declare, “to establish a generation in the footsteps of the generation that was lost, a generation replete with truthfulness and innocence, a generation that will rise in their tefillah and sanctification of Shabbos, while a the same time being proficient and diligent in their learning, both iyun and bekiyus.”
It was in this way that he led the yeshiva, influencing his talmidim with his tremendous depth and breadth of knowledge as well as wisdom of all of life’s issues. His father, the Imrei Chaim, established and built Shikun Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak, which seemed like nothing more than a wishful dream. The dream became a reality, though, and the vision was followed by many others. The Rebbe was appointed rov of the neighborhood. He was no stranger to this position, since while still a bochur, he had served as the rov of the city of Wilchovitz.
Yeshivas Vizhnitz has become synonymous with the banner of Torah and Chassidus combined. The diligence and ahavas Torah that emanated from the Rebbe in his personal behavior influenced generations of students, producing pure, polished products.
The yeshiva is constantly growing and flourishing, expanding its sphere of influence. From the central location of Shikun Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak, additional yeshivos were established in Yerushalayim, Ashdod, Elad, Modiin Ilit, Antwerp, London and Boro Park. Kehillos were established, and with them chinuch institutions and chesed organizations.
“I still have many plans,” the Rebbe can often be heard saying, and he never lets those around him rest and desist, whether they are involved in the Torah institutions or in askanus.
The Rebbe’s right hand is his son, Rav Yisroel Hager, who bears the burden, both physical and spiritual, with his father, together with the Rebbe’s son-in-law, the rosh yeshiva, who shares from the Rebbe’s Torah with the tens of thousands of talmidim and chassidim.
Seventy years of chinuch endeavors of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe have resulted in generations, whose sparks are scattered all over the world. Many of the talmidim serve as rabbonim and poskim, roshei yeshiva and sayanim, marbitzei Torah and community leaders. All over Eretz Yisroel and around the world, people benefit from their advice and guidance. The Rebbe’s tremendous influence and his vision are constantly being realized with the establishment of chaburos for bochurim and avreichim, daily Torah shiurim and institutions that flourish under the Rebbe’s leadership with the thousands of children, bochurim and avreichim that they educate or employ.
The tens of thousands of students being educated today in Vizhnitzer mosdos, along with the tens of thousands who preceded them, carry aloft the banner of Torah and Chassidus, and their very existence declares to the world: Netzach Yisroel lo yeshaker.
Click below for photos of the 70 Years Celebratory Event:
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{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/Photos courtesy of Ladaat}
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