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24 Iyar 5768 - May 29, 2008 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Rav Chaim Moshe Flam zt"l

By Yechiel Sever

Thousands of bereaved Jerusalem residents took part in the levaya for Rav Chaim Moshe Flam z"l, one of the roshei yeshiva of Yeshivas Ohr Dovid and a prominent avreich in Jerusalem's Sanhedria Murchevet neighborhood, who passed away at the age of 56.

The deceased was born in Pittsburgh in 5711 (1952) to R' Dovid and his mother, Mannia. His parents infused him with kovod haTorah and ahavas chessed. At a young age he went to Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, where he studied in the high school. Later he continued his studies at Yeshivas Pittsburgh, where he was among the leading talmidim. At Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in New York and Jerusalem he cleaved to his rebbe, HaRav Henoch Leibowitz zt"l.

In 5738 (1978) he married his wife Hinda tlc"a of the Kurtz family, and one year later they moved to Jerusalem, where he enrolled in Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim's kollel.

During this period he identified a need to start a yeshiva that would prepare young American men for yeshiva gedoloh studies and, together with HaRav Yosef Granofsky, founded Yeshivas Ohr Dovid.

The yeshiva was a constant labor of love for him. In eulogizing the deceased, his son said he had a collection of index cards on which he would record every chiddush or vort he heard and that every chiddush in learning brought him great joy.

When he became too sick to deliver shiurim at the yeshiva he began giving them in his home, drawing encouragement and strength from them, and he once told his son his whole desire to live was to see his sons growing in Torah.

He was widely known as a man of chessed. Neighborhood residents recalled that he would pull over at every bus stop to offer people a ride, often driving far out of his way for their sake, always saying it was "on the way."

At the levaya HaRav Yitzchok Berkowitz, rov of the beis knesses he attended, said that only after the petiroh was it learned he had paid the grocery bills for various needy families, in addition to sums of money he would secretly give to poor people and lomdei Torah in the neighborhood. Even his own family members were unaware of some of his many acts of chessed.

On the night of Pesach Sheini he returned to his Maker a soul refined by the pain he suffered during his prolonged illness.

Hespeidim were delivered by HaRav Boruch Shimon Salomon, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Nachalas Dovid, HaRav Dovid Chait, one of the roshei yeshiva of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, HaRav Avrohom Kanerik, the mashgiach of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, HaRav Yitzchok Berkowitz, HaRav Yosef Granofsky, his brother-in-law Rav Avrohom Friedman and two of his sons.

Rav Chaim Moshe Flam z"l is survived by his sons, Rav Yisroel Meir, an avreich in Beitar Illit, Rav Dov, an avreich at Yeshivas Nachalas Dovid in Petach Tikva, his sons-in-law, Rav Nesanel Neuman of Beit Shemesh and Rav Yaakov Shlomo Sokol of Beitar, and four other children he didn't live to see married, including a daughter just weeks away from her wedding to R' Yisroel Meir Bollack.

 

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