HaRav Eliyohu Menachem Bodan zt"l, among the
outstanding members of Kollel Heichal HaTorah in Manchester,
passed away on the night of Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach at the
age of 45.
Rav Bodan was born in London. His father was Rav Osher Bodan
zt"l. At Yeshivas Gateshead and Yeshivas Brisk he was
totally absorbed in his studies and was such an exceptional
masmid that his friends felt uncomfortable speaking
about mundane matters with him. To Rav Bodan there was no
difference between the beginning of the zman and the
end of the zman, for all of his time was devoted to
toiling in Torah.
He would set goals and stick to them unswervingly, come what
may. After every study session he would linger for a few
minutes to summarize what he had learned. He never let
anything interfere with his learning. Burning with a desire
for Torah he went from one maseches to the next,
acquiring broad knowledge of Shas and
poskim.
Even during the pain and suffering of the last six months he
maintained his tremendous zeal for Torah, sometimes even
going to kollel as usual.
He invested great efforts in avodas hatefilloh. He
always used a siddur with a simple explanation of the
words printed on the page and devoted great energy to every
tefilloh. He constantly made use of seforim on
tefilloh and even wrote down his own thoughts and
ideas on the words of the tefilloh, which he recently
began to prepare for print as a zikui horabim.
He spoke about Hashem constantly, always recognizing
Hashgochoh protis in every situation he encountered,
and his bitochon was exceptional. During his illness
he emphasized Hashem's kindnesses and accepted his suffering
with love and simple faith, saying, "Kol man de'ovid
Rachmono letav ovid."
As he lay in pain on his deathbed he asked to be woken up to
recite Krias Shema and the tefilloh on time,
though he hardly had the strength to utter a word after long,
sleepless nights.
On Erev Pesach he was too weak to eat, but when the Seder
arrived he gathered the last of his strength to eat a
kezayis of matzoh and to read the Haggadah,
adding his own ideas on emunoh and
bitachon.
Rav Eliyohu Menachem Bodan zt"l is survived by his
wife and children, who follow his path of Torah and
yir'oh.
