A large throng of Bnei Brak residents, headed by gedolei
haTorah, roshei yeshiva and dayanim and followed
by thousands of graduates of the Ponevezh yeshiva,
accompanied the righteous Rebbetzin Shoshana Bamberger
o"h, eishes chover of HaRav Ben Tzion Halevi
Bamberger, zt"l, former menahel ruchani of
Ponevezh, on her last earthly journey. She was niftar
in her 76th year.
Rebbetzin Bamberger, daughter of HaRav Yaakov Meir the rav
of Rishinburg and one of the chief opponents of the
maskilim, was born in Germany. When Europe's skies
darkened, the family made its way to Eretz Hakodesh via
Amsterdam. Her father was niftar on the way. At first
her mother, together with her four children, settled in
Petach Tikvah. Later on they moved to Bnei Brak.
During those difficult times when the family suffered from a
lack of the barest essentials, young Shoshana took a factory
job in order to enable her illustrious brother, yibodel
lechayim tovim ve'arukim, HaRav Yissochor Meir, to study
Torah undisturbed.
When she came of age she married HaRav Ben Tzion Bamberger,
assuming the entire household financial burden in order to
enable her husband to study Torah. He served as a ram
in the Or Yisroel yeshiva ketana for ten years, and
was later asked by the Rav of Ponovezh and by the Mashgiach,
HaRav Yechezkel Levenstein, to preside as menahel
ruchani of the yeshiva. HaRav Bamberger remained in this
position until his petirah, arousing his students to
advance in avodas Hashem through his discourses and
writings.
Rebbetzin Bamberger was a paradigm of yiras Shomayim,
modesty, simplicity and inner avodas Hashem. She
dedicated her entire life to chesed with the living
and with the deceased in a remarkable manner. So great was
her chesed that her husband called her, "a genius in
helping others and a genius in not being helped by
others."
Many stories about her acts of kindness and activities on
behalf of the poor and unfortunate are known to the
chesed organizations of Bnei Brak. However, in
keeping with her last will and testament and requests by the
family, only a bare sketch of these activities is being
presented here. During her final years she fell ill, and on
13 Iyar she returned her pure soul, which had been refined
by much suffering, to its Maker.
The levaya proceeding from her home was attended by
thousands. Due to her explicit request that no
hespedim be delivered nor words of praise written in
her memory, no hespedim were delivered. However her
brother, who parted from her, noted that when he was young,
he merited to study Torah because she went out to work for
his sake. He also pointed to the tzedoko and
chesed she did in an unobtrusive manner.
Close to chatzos she was buried in the Netzivei
Ponevezh cemetery in Bnei Brak.
She is survived by her sons HaRav Yaakov and HaRav Yosef;
her daughters who are married to HaRav Azriel Frishman and
HaRav Shaman Ozer Yaffeh respectively; as well as by her
brother Yissochor Meir and sisters Rebbetzin Cholack and
Rebbetzin Pffefer; grandchildren and great- grandchildren,
all of whom are continuing to uphold the great spiritual
legacy she bequeathed to them.
