HaRav Nissim Rebibo zt"l a dayan and rosh
avos beis din in France, passed away unexpectedly at the
age of 58 last week.
HaRav Rebibo was born in Morocco and left home for
Sunderland, England at a young age to study at the yeshiva of
HaRav Shamai Zahn and, ylct"a, HaRav Chanoch
Ehrentreu. He soon stood out for his tremendous
shekidoh in Torah learning and his elevated
middos, which marked him for greatness.
Later he transferred to Lakewood Yeshiva, where he learned
under Maran HaRav Aharon Kotler zt"l. Over the years
he grew very close to the rosh yeshiva, HaRav Schneur Kotler.
Here, too, he gained prominence for his broad Torah
knowledge. Eventually he was appointed rosh kollel of
Kollel Lakewood, giving a daily shiur to hundreds of
avreichim. Years later, after he had served as a
dayan in Paris, he was chosen among Lakewood's
thousands of graduates as the guest of honor at the yeshiva's
50th anniversary dinner.
When HaRav Yosef Chaim Sitruk was appointed Chief Rabbi of
France he made HaRav Rebibo av beis din and within a
short period of time he became a central rabbinical figures
in France accepted by all Jewish communities around the
country.
Throughout his lifetime HaRav Rebibo detached himself from
This World, devoting all his energies to Torah study. Most of
his day was spent learning and he would take advantage of
every spare moment to study Torah. One year ago he was asked
to serve as a dayan in London, but he chose to remain
at his post in France.
HaRav Rebibo was a man of great humility, always fleeing from
honor, which drew him even more admirers. He received
everybody with a smile but was always forceful when it came
to halachic matters. Even when he heard complex cases, all of
the litigants would leave his chamber with a good feeling,
even if they lost.
He would bring many of his halachic questions to Jerusalem,
to the home of Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv,
shlita. HaRav Rebibo was known to be highly versed in
halochoh and the customs of every community. He always knew
how to extract the salient points from both sides and
penetrate the essence of halachic questions brought before
him. As a member of the Conference of European Rabbis his
opinion was highly valued and was often decisive in various
matters.
He was hospitalized two weeks ago after suffering leg pains,
which turned out to be from a necrosis. The dead tissue led
to an infection that spread throughout his body until he
passed away. The large levaya, held in Jerusalem, was
attended by rabbonim from both France and Eretz Yisroel, as
well as many of his talmidim.
