Channah Eliashiyuv o"h, the wife of HaRav Yosef
Eliashiyuv and the mother of the Eliashiyuv
brothers—among today's leading Torah
benefactors—passed away last Sunday morning 10
Kislev.
The deceased was born in 5685 (1925) in Tashkent, Buchara,
during a period when the Soviet authorities were trying to
extinguish the embers of Yiddishkeit burning in the hearts of
Russian Jewry. Through mesirus nefesh she and her
husband built a home founded on Torah and mitzvas until her
husband was imprisoned. For the next seven years she
continued to raise her young children in a religious home
despite the many obstacles placed before her.
Thirty years ago, leaving all their property behind, the
family moved to Eretz Yisroel, fulfilling their
powerful yearning to live Torah lives undisturbed on the soil
of Eretz Yisroel. They settled in Bnei Brak, saying,
"Ein ani dar elo bemokom Torah."
They began to rebuild their lives here while constantly
striving to promote Torah life among fellow immigrants from
Buchara and to distance them from the secular language and
culture that pervaded the general public.
The Eliashiyuvs started Shaarei Tzion Institutions, now found
throughout Eretz Yisroel. Today hundreds of avreichim
learn in Shaarei Tzion kollelim and thousands of
students are enrolled in Shaarei Tzion institutions in
Eretz Yisroel and abroad.
Several weeks ago Mrs. Eliashiyuv fell ill and on Sunday the
tzidkonis returned her soul to her Maker. When the
levaya set out, waiting outside her home were hundreds
of avreichim from Shaarei Tzion kollelim as
well as students from the Shaarei Tzion schools and yeshivas
she built with her husband and which are run by her sons.
Hespeidim were delivered by HaRav Massud Ben Shimon,
HaRav Betzalel Pinchasi, HaRav Menachem Tzvi Berlin, HaRav
Yisrael Pinchasi and HaRav Moshe Benedict, who was her
husband's chavrusa for decades. They spoke of her
efforts to hold a minyan in her home in recent years
and how she would pray behind a curtain even when only her
own relatives were present, citing this as an example of the
modesty that shone through in all of her ways. She worked
hard to raise her children for lives of Torah and yiras
Shomayim, they noted, and anyone who entered her home
would hear her voice her aspirations to increase and glorify
Torah.
Led by gedolei Torah, roshei yeshivos and
dayonim the levaya proceeded through the
streets of Bnei Brak, working its way to Yeshivat Shaarei
Tzion on Rechov Ezra, where she was eulogized by the rosh
yeshiva, HaRav Yechiel Tawil, HaRav Eliyahu Abba Shaul, HaRav
Avrohom Yaakobson, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Shaarei Tzion
in Ramle and the rov of Be'er Yaakov, and HaRav Moshe Levy,
rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Tiferet HaLevy. Citing the verses,
"Eishes chayil mi yimtzo," and "komu bonehoh
vaye'ashruhoh," they said that her sons' deeds show she
was a mother who sat within the confines of her home modestly
but had an impact that stretched far and wide, making all of
the students at the many Shaarei Tzion institutions as well
as the avreichei kollelim her sons, through the
zchus of her many tefillos and exceptional
tznius.
The procession then continued until it reached the Netzivei
Ponovezh Cemetery, where moving words of parting were offered
by HaRav Tzfatman, rosh kollel of Kollel Shaarei Tzion
in Kiryat Sefer. He said in the World of Truth she is certain
to act for all of her offspring to help them continue their
great endeavors and see blessings in their labors.
