The Tosher Rebbe zt”l

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of the Tosher Rebbe, Rav Meshulam Feish Segal-Loewy zt”l, at the age of 95.

The Chassidic community of Tosh is located in Kiryas Tosh, Quebec, Canada, outside of Boisbriand, a suburb of Montreal.

The Rebbe, one of the oldest admorim in the world, led his kehillah there and also led botei medrash in Boro Park, Williamsburg, Kiryas Yoel , Monsey, Montreal and London.

The Rebbe was renowned for his tzidkus, dikduk b’mitzvos and intense avodas Hashem.

Yidden from all over the world sought out the Rebbe’s brachos and counsel, and his blessings we’re known to result in remarkable yeshuos for his petitioners.

The Rebbe, a son of Rav Mordechai of Demetsche and Rebbetzin Tzirel, was born in Nyirtass, Hungary, in 5682 (1921 or 1922). He survived the Holocaust in the Hungarian Labor Service and was liberated by the Red Army from a camp outside Marghita in October 1944.

The few surviving chassidim of his father, Rav Mordechai, who perished in Auschwitz with most of his extended family, appointed him their Rebbe and he established his kehillah in Nyíregyháza.

In 1951, fearing the Communist government, he and his chassidim left Hungary and emigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal. In 1963, the kehillah purchased an area in Boisbriand, Quebec, forming the enclave of Kiryas Tosh.

The Rebbe was married to Rebbetzin Chava (née Weingarten), a direct descendant of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk, from 1946 until her petirah in 1996. He married to his second wife, Rebbetzin Malka Hass, in 2007.

Many of the Rebbe’s drashos and shiurim have been published in a series of five seforim titled Avodas Avodah. Two of them are seforim on the parshiyos hashovuah and Yomim Tovim with practical insights into avid as Hashem which are subtitled Dibros Kodesh. Further two are Yiddish seforim that explain the parshiyos hashovuah and Yomim Tovim with practical insights into avid as Hashem titled Imros Kodesh. Another is a compilation of addresses that the Tosher Rebbe delivered on various yahrzeits of gedolim arranged according to the calendar and subtitled Sichos Kodesh.

The Rebbe’s passing, in many ways, is the end of an era, as Klal Yisroel has lost yet another link to the Torah world of generations gone by.

May the Rebbe be a meilitz yosher for all of Klal Yisroel.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Gavriel Sitrit-Matzav.com Newscenter}