Eldest of Rebbes in Eretz Hakodesh: Rebbe Yochanan Sofer of Erloi ztk"l

Mourning in the world of Torah and Hasidus: at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem, Jerusalem, the eldest of Rebbes in Eretz Yisroel, hatzaddik Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, Av Beis Din Erloi, died tonight at 4:30 am, at the age of 93.

The Rebbe zt"l returned his pure soul to its Creator after he was rushed last Shabbos Parshas Trumah, to the hospital with severe pneumonia and since then his health deteriorated and he was admitted to the intensive care unit. In all concentrations of the Hasidus the gates of heaven were torn in prayers, however tonight the decree was given and he returned his soul to its Creator, while hundreds of Hasidim who came to the hospital were crying Shema Yisrael, and the verses of viduy with melodies of dveikus.

The Rebbe zt"l was the eldest member of the Presidium of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel. For over seventy years he established, unified and consolidated the Erloi community in Eretz Yisroel after the Holocaust - along with the establishment of seminaries and religious institutions across the country and the world.

When the terrible news spread, students and Hasidim of the Rebbe zt"l broke into tears, refusing to digest the terrible news, the Paroches in the large Beis Midrash of the Hasidus in Yeshiva Ohel Shimon Erloi in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood was removed and grief was felt in every corner, the Rebbe zt"l death bed was brought into the yeshiva.

The funeral procession will leave at 11:30 am from the Beis Midrash of the Rebbe zt"l in Katamon neighborhood and at 14:00 from Chatam Sofer Beis Midrash on Ezras Torah Street towards Har Hamenuchos – where he will be buried in the Erloi plot next to his wife Rebbetzin Miriam a"h.

Behadrey Haredim learned that in the Katamon neighborhood hespedim are expected led by his eldest son and successor, hatzaddik Rabbi Moshe Sofer, and two more hespedim at the Beis Midrash in Ezras Torah.

May his soul be bound in the bond of life.


The song 'Adon Olam' of Yomim Noraim which was sung during yetzias neshoma

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!