Tefillos for Rav Zev Leff

All are asked to daven for Rav Zev Leff, rov of Moshav Matisyahu, who was hospitalized on Friday night in serious condition.

Rav Leff was taken to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer after suffering respiratory inflammation. He underwent surgery and then caught pneumonia.

Born in the Bronx, New York to non-observant Jewish parents, Rabbi Leff attended a local Hebrew school. When his family moved to the Greater Miami area, he decided to increase his religious observance and enrolled at the Hebrew Academy of Greater Miami. Since his learning skills were not up to par with other boys his age (fifth grade), he was placed in a third-grade class. Within two years he had caught up to his grade, and also made the decision to become shomer Shabbos.

For high school, Rav Leff attended the Mesivta of Greater Miami, where he was regularly assigned to the yeshiva’s most advanced shiurim. Afterwards he joined the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received his semichah and became a close talmid of Rav Mordechai Gifter.

In late 1968, he married Rivkah Minkoff of Ellenville, New York. The couple settled in Cleveland, where Rav Leff learned in the Telsher kollel.

During a Pesach visit to Miami in 1974, Rav Leff delivered drashos at the Young Israel of Greater Miami in North Miami Beach. His drashos were so well received that after the Yom Tov, he was invited to apply for the position of rov. With the encouragement of Rav Gifter, he accepted a one-year contract.

Rav Leff served as the rov of the 300 families of Young Israel of Greater Miami for nine years. He worked with the NCSY chapter in his shul and also taught at the mesivta he attended as a teenager. His ability to understand both religious and secular Jews made him a popular leader and advisor.

In 1983, the Leff family made aliyah to Eretz Yisroel, where Rav Leff became the mara d’asra of Moshav Matityahu, a small settlement now adjacent to Modi’in Illit (Kiryat Sefer).

In addition to his communal duties, Rav Leff serves as rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva Gedolah Matisyahu and oversees the kollel there. He also teaches a group of unaffiliated Israelis who live near the moshav and serves as a rebbi and teacher at various institutions.

Rav Leff’s shiurim are known for their depth of knowledge, personal insights, wit and humor. He has spoken about and recorded lessons on a wide range of themes, has written several seforim, and is a sought-after maggid shiur.

All are asked to daven for Rav Zev Yaakov Moshe ben Chaya.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}