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Commentary:
Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the internationally known Aish HaTorah Yeshiva was niftar Thursday morning in his Jerusalem home at age 79.
The Aish.com website reports that R’ Weinberg z”l was recently diagnosed with a serious illness:
Update: December 24, 2008
After undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments in Israel earlier this year, Rabbi Weinberg has been recuperating but is still very weak. In the midst of all this, Rabbi Weinberg never stopped moving forward in his lofty goals. He came to Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem almost every day – teaching and strategizing ways to help the Jewish people.
In December 2008, Rabbi Weinberg fell and broke his thigh bone and shoulder. An operation was performed and the doctors are optimistic about the recovery.
Israel National News’ Hillel Fendel recalls R’ Weinberg:
A graduate of two prominent yeshivot in the United States – Rabbi Chaim Berlin in New York and Ner Yisrael in Baltimore – Rabbi Weinberg founded or co-founded the two most famous yeshivot in Jerusalem for beginners, Ohr Somayach and Aish HaTorah.
Students of Rabbi Weinberg, who number in the thousands, say his teachings emphasize a close relationship with G-d, as well as maximizing one’s contentment in this world through meaningful activities. His book “What the Angel Taught You” and his tape series “48 Ways to Wisdom” are popular throughout the Jewish world.
Many hundreds of loving and thankful tributes from his students can be read here. The letters thank for him for “changing my life,” “bettering my life and enriching it with Torah,” “G-d gave you a life filled with purpose,” and the like.
… Throughout these difficult periods, however, he continued arriving at Aish HaTorah in the Old City whenever possible.
As a Ba’al Teshuva of nearly 19 years, I never personally met Rabbi Weinberg, nor learned in his shiur, nor attended Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. However, the kiruv system that he developed and put in place at Aish HaTorah evolved world-wide tentacles, one of which I was beneficiary of.
It was either April or May of 1989 when I attended, with a friend, an Aish HaTorah Shabbaton in East Windsor, N.J. Although I always identified Jewishly and identified strongly with Israel almost from birth, within days of modern-day statehood, I was largely distant from Shul and religious life. But, at this Shabbaton I met and heard shiurim from R’ Motti Berger, Dr. Avraham Goldfinger and more. I was fascinated with the hidden codes (the equa-distant letter sequences) of Torah. After attending a couple of more such Shabbatons, I searched for kiruv in Philadelphia and found the Eitz Chaim Center for Jewish Studies with their co-directors Rabbis Dovid Wachs and Moshe Ungar as well as Congregations Ahavas Torah, the Young Israel of the Main Line and Beth Hamidrash and began my Teshuva journey. But the initial impetus came from that Shabbaton in East Windsor. And so, while I never knew or met R’ Weinberg, z”l, I, as with countless other Ba’alei Teshuva, owe him a huge HaKaras HaTov.
The funeral took place at the Ahavat Torah synagogue in Kiryat Zanz in Jerusalem at 1:30 PM on Thursday. The Rabbi was buried in Har HaZeitim (Mt. of Olives).