By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yosef Waldman, a Lubavitcher chossid who is credited with convincing the Rebbe to continue one of his hallmark commentaries on Torah, passed away on Shabbos, 14 Kislev, 5775.
He was 85.
Born to a Munkatch chassidic family, he grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. It was his father’s decision to send him to study at Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in Crown Heights, after his Bar Mitzvah, that made him follow Chabad.
“He became enamored with the Frierdiker Rebbe and knew the Rebbe before he assumed leadership of Chabad,” a person who knew him told COLlive.com.
After his marriage, R’ Yosef built his home in Crown Heights. Even while working in the diamond industry on 47th Street in New York, friends related that R’ Yosef was always “talking Torah” and that it gave him pleasure.
Most notably was his love for the “Rashi Sichos.”
Beginning in late 1964, after the passing of his mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, the Rebbe began dedicating a segment of his weekly Shabbos farbrengens to the study of Rashi‘s classic commentary.
What soon emerged was an innovative method for both the study and analysis of the Torah’s foremost commentator, and for Chumash study itself. These sichos continued for more than 25 years.
But what most people don’t know is that at one point the Rebbe stopped delivering these sichos. Alarmed, Rabbi Waldman wrote in to the Rebbe saying that he personally missed them and wished they continue.
“The Rebbe replied that the reason he stopped was because people weren’t paying attention,” recalls Yehudah Meth, Waldman’s son-in-law. “My father-in-law wrote back, daringly, that perhaps the Rebbe should announce the subject matter in advance so the public can familiarize with the material.”
The Rebbe agreed, but said he will announce the subject and part of Rashi that he will discuss on Shabbos through Rabbi Waldman, who in return would disseminate the information around Crown Heights and beyond.
“The Rebbe left us with a modern-day such supercommentary synopsized by a team of scholars in the form of a readily available 5-volume work entitled Biurim LePirush Rashi al HaTorah,” says Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union.
“His five-volume work dispenses with the Chassidic material and distills much of the Rebbe’s teachings of what we would call the peshat, or simple meaning of Rashi’s words,” he wrote in the summer 2014 edition of Jewish Action.
Rabbi Waldman is survived by his wife, Miriam Waldman, and daughter Chantzie Meth– Rockaway, NJ, and grandchildren.
He is also survived by his sister, Mrs. Chanie Lieberman – Flatbush and brother R’ Naftali Waldman – Woodstock, NY.
The Levaya will take place Sunday, leaving from Shomrei Hadas in Boro Park at 10:00 am and passing by 770 at approximately 10:45 am to be interred in the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.
The family will be sitting Shiva at 693 Montgomery St. Brooklyn, NY.
Baruch Dayan Haemes.
איש חסד.
איש אמת
מאדם שהתנהגותו האצילית לאורך שנים של הרב עזרה לו מאד. לנצח אזכור את טוב ליבו.
ועזרתו
אדם יקר מכל.
יהי זכרו ברוך
Rabbi waldman was indeed a Family man. He would always display great concern and love for his wife miriam and daughter Chanzie. Miriam you were fortunate to have had this wonderful husband as your life partner. May Hashem give you STRENGTH in the years ahead. May the wonderful memories give you courage.We all love you and pray for you. Hamakom Yinachem Eschem
Rabbi and Mrs. Waldman and Chantzie as well. Always with a smile and kind word to all of Chantzie’s friends.
Hamakom Yinachem eschem. May the family find comfort.
a childhood friend
dearest miriam sheyichye
i’m so sorry for your lose
hashem zol dir geben nachas foon dayne tochter aidim un
ainiklech
hashem zal dir geben koach
boruch dayan haemess
Yes Rabbi Yosef Waldman gets credit for the Rashi sichos, but it is only fare that the person that gave him the courage and advise to get The Rebbe to continue with the Rashi Sichos (as he himself related many years ago) was a Gabai of 770 none other then Reb Zalmen Hachohen Blizovsky.
I was zoche to spend many shabbosim in their home after finding out that an uncle of mine worked in his shop. Having very fond memories this news is very saddening. May the family be comforted in his good deeds.
I did not know Rabbi Waldman personally – but taught his daughter Chantzie many years ago in Bais Rivkah. A truly refined and bright young lady who was so thirsty for knowledge and excelled in Limudei Kodesh.
Now I see the wonderful connection. May the family be comforted and only have abundance of naches.
No other work but the original conveys the beauty etc. of the Rebbe’s analysis of Pirush Rashi
All other works are short cuts and aren’t good enough
Since I’m a little kid ( I grew up on the block ) my father told me what a special man he was, and I always said hello and usually made conversation with Rabbi Waldman.
He was a tremendous Talmid Chacham and a genuinely sweet kind person. He will be very missed.
No matter how often I visited the Waldman home I have a single picture in my mind of Rabbi Waldman; sitting at the table with an opened sefer in front of him, learning, always always learning. It made the whole house so Torahdik. I loved being there.
He was a true gentleman in every sense of the word and an erliche European Yid, the likes of which we don’t find in today’s generation., someone with dignity and humility, humorous yet sensitive and so sincere and real.
A precious neshama, a precious yid.
We are saddened to hear of the loss of this special Chossid. Please correct the address 693 montgomery st. May it be soon fulfilled ‘Yivola Hamoves Lonetzach’ with the Geula hashleima now !