From Hamodia

The champion of the rishonim

The Life and Times of HaRav HaGaon R’ Chaim Moshe Yehuda Blau ZT”L

By M. Hecht

Like our glorious European Jewish past, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Blau was a treasure. His petirah on the 3^rd of Iyar closed a window on a world long gone and leaves a void in the Jewish communities of the United States and Canada, and indeed, around the world.

Born in Hamburg, Germany on the 4^th of Marcheshvan, 5673, the young Moshe Yehuda attended the yeshiva where his esteemed father taught, and then learned in Chust, Hungary, under the tutelage of Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky. His goal was to continue his learning in Mir. He saved up for the trip by tutoring young children in his spare time.

MIR AND THE CHOFETZ CHAIM

Moshe Yehuda Blau arrived at Mir at 19 and stayed on for bochurhood, marriage and the yeshiva’s long flight from WWII to freedom, flourishing under the famed mashgiach Rabbeinu Yerucham Levovitz.

Once, some dread disease struck Moshe Yehuda, so much so that he sought medical attention in distant Vilna. The doctor recommended a serious operation, but Reb Yerucham demurred. “Just change your diet and you’ll get better,” he advised.

So our young talmid chochom visited the Chofetz Chaim, who, well advanced in years, was at a therapeutic “dacha”, sefer in hand even while convalescing on a hammock. But before he could approach the tzadik, an assistant informed him that the Chofetz Chaim doesn’t dispense brachos for fear of fulfillment and fame. “But I really need it!” protested young Blau. “If you do him a favor, he’ll bless you,” confided the assistant. “He doesn’t want to be indebted to anyone, even a debt of gratitude.”

“So, what can I do?”

“Bring someone he wants to see here and you’ll earn his blessings.”

The meshores then informed his master that the bochur desires a complete recovery. The Chofetz Chaim merely responded, “Halevai...” “Give me a brochah that I should become a talmid chochom!” Moshe Yehudah cried out. At this, the Chofetz Chaim responded directly: “Omain!”

“To become a talmid chochom,” thought the young bochur, “I have to sit and learn. And to do that, I have to be well. So—I’ll be well!” Moshe Yehudah shortly located Reb Leizer Ginsburg, the Chofetz Chaim’s granddaughter’s husband, and, needless to say, went back to Mir and got better.

The war years

WWII forced the Mirrer Yeshivah to flee to Vilna, where they learned that, for a bribe of $200 in U.S. dollars per Bbochur, Russian authorities would supply exit visas. But besides collecting that enormous sum, deportation to Siberia for merely inquiring about emigration loomed, as well as the prohibition of carrying foreign currency.

As the young men weighed possible arrest versus isolation behind the Iron Curtain, Moshe Yehuda Blau suggested the Goral HaGra, which fell on Exodus 19:4: “And I will carry you on eagles’ wings and I will deliver you to Me.”  The rest is history: across Siberia to Japan, then to Shanghai and beyond, a chain of miracles.

The mission of a lifetime

Reb Moshe Yehuda was aware that a great number of unpublished meforshim either languished in archives or were lost, and he became their champion, embarking on a 50-year career of discovery and scholarship. He corresponded with far-flung libraries to examine their holdings, ordering microfilms and/or copies of their items and poring over them endlessly. Rabbi Blau succeeded in printing over 40 new Seforim, including the first-ever-published Ritva on Bava Basra, enthusiastically received by the Olam HaTorah.

Much of this work was identifying anonymous authors. To accomplish this, a search of every relevant meforash was required, in the hope of finding an attributed quote drawn from the anonymous work. Sometimes, however, Rabbi Blau’s trained eyes caught a style, or words, reminiscent of an existing meforash. Slow going, but almost always effectively restoring the author’s work to its rightful place. For Rabbi Blau was on a sacred mission: finding the rishonim’s lost works.

GETTING THE JOB DONE

Seforim were Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Blau’s life: he analyzed, published and sold them. He wanted to bring closure to the Rishonim—to allow their lost writings to be studied once again. Rabbi Blau spent several months each year bringing restored meforshim to light, but, in addition he spent many hours daily engaged in limud haTorah lishmah, whether at home or on the road.

And as far as he reached for Torah novellae, it seems Heaven reached further, leading him in the right directions whenever trails would run cold.

On one of his travels, his taxi arrived at the wrong business. “Hashgachah pratis,” he thought. “Someone here might buy a sefer.” The Sephardic rug salesman had no interest in seforim, but, remarkably, possessed an ancient Aramaic scroll. When the man produced it, Rabbi Blau could hardly contain himself: it was part of a rishon’s commentary for which he had been searching for years!

The guardian of tefillin and mezuzos

Although his life’s mission was restoration of the rishonim, Rabbi Blau found time to  promote the importance of having Kosher Tefillin and Mezuzos throughout his travels.

In the early years, Rabbi Blau would expose the fact that small Mezuzos were almost always posul—and provide large kosher mezuzos at subsidized prices. In the same vein, he arranged for roving Sofrim to visit small cities. Likewise, Rabbi Blau never missed an opportunity to present his effective mezuzah-inspection crash courses.

When it came to Tefillin, Rabbi Blau could spot Pesulim from a mile away—but when their owners couldn’t afford new Tefillin, he would give them tefillin gratis… if they would commit to daily usage.

These mitzvos meant so much to him that shortly before his passing he requested that it be written on his matzeiva that whoever will promote the use of kosher tefillin and mezuzos will be rewarded from heaven.

*          *          *

Rabbi Blau served as Rav of Ahavas Achim of East New York for 20 years, and then as Rav of Congregation Avrohom U’Tzvi Hirsch of Boro Park, for 30. Wheelchair-bound for the last six years of his well-lived life, Reb Moshe Yehudah still kept attending shul, studying, teaching and promoting Torah to the end. After an illness of several months, Rabbi Chaim Moshe Yehuda Blau returned to Heaven at the ripe old age of 90, where his beloved rishonim, and thousands of zechusim, were surely waiting.

Rabbi Blau is survived by his wife Eta, two sons Meir and Reuvain, two daughters Nechama Kastel and Rochel Elishevitz, numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and sister Rivkah Marmorstein.

Anyone with more stories about Rabbi Blau is requested to call 917-755-2609. The Tefillin and Mezuzah Fund is being established to continue Rabbi Blau’s activities. For more information, please call 718-436-5570.