BDE: Passing of a Legend, Haga’on Hachossid Rav Yoel Kahn, zt”l, Chief Chozer for Lubavitcher Rebbe, and Mashpiah to Thousands

The Lubavitcher community across the world, as well as many outside it, were deeply saddened this afternoon with the sad news of the passing of a legend in the chassidic world, Rav Yoel Kahn, zt”l. He was 91. 

Rav Yoel was synonymous with every possible good quality that one could ask of a chossid: Emunah peshutah, pashtus, bittul to a Rebbe to the most extreme, a ga’on atzum, fluent in every area of Toras hachassidus, a ba’al middos to the extreme, who carried himself with complete humility—even as the mind of a brilliant, world-class scholar worked within his head. 

Rav Yoel was born in Russia in 1930. As a young boy, his family made aliyah to Eretz Yisroel, where he was influenced by legendary Chabad Mashpi’im in the Holy Land. But in America, the. Rayatz, the “Frierdiker Rebbe,” of Lubavitch had arrived, to bring the spirit of uncompromising Yiddishkeit that he had sown in Russia, to the spiritual barrenness of America. 

Yoel thought he would arrive in time to meet the sixth Rebbe, but he was too late. The Rebbe returned his pure soul to its maker on 10 Shevat of that year. Instead, the moment he set eyes on the Rebbe’s son in law, “the Ramash,” he knew who his successor would be. The letters that he sent home to Yerushalayim during the interim period of the Rebbe’s acceptance of the “nesiu’s” give perhaps the starkest glimpse into that era. 

For the seventy ensuing years, Rav Yoel dedicated his life to the dissemination of the Rebbe’s Torah. As the “Chozer,” he was charged with remembering up to six hours of deep Torah said during farbregens on Shabbos and Yom Tov. With his sharp mind, and phenomenal memory, he committed these teaching to memory, and it is thanks to him that they were preserved. 

But his greatest, most important role was that of a teacher. 

This is what he was for seventy years; a teacher to thousands, an expositor of the deepest and finest concepts in Toras hachassidus. As part of this, he also wrote and authored much Torah elucidating on these points. 

For decades, Rav Yoel would deliver shiruim with regularity in Boro Park—where he would attract those seeking a deeper insight into Chassidic concepts through the lens of Chabad chassidus. 

One observer said: “This is the toughest thing to have happened to Lubavitcher since the passing of the Rebbe in 1994; Rav Yoel was a central pillar who brought together every single Chabad chossid throughout the world in their reverence and awe of his chassidus and his Torah.” 

His Torah and his middos were only matched by his humility. He would interact with even the youngest child with deep respect. He also loved niggunim greatly, and emphasized accuracy in the transmission of niggunim. 

The loss to the Lubavitcher chassidus is incalculable, and a deep source of sadness to Yidden around the world who knew and admired him. 

The levaya will take place in Boro Park’s Shomrei Hadas on Friday morning at 9:45, from where it will proceed to 770 at 10:45, and ultimately to New Montefiore Cemetery, in proximity to the Rebbeim whose Torah he had dedicated his life to teaching. 

Yehi Zichro Baruch. 

Watch Live the Levaya of Rav Yoel Kahn, zt”l

https://www.shomreihadas.com/http-webcast-funeralvue-com-events-viewer-57188-hash7c61a8019a49063a/

Rav Yoel Kahn, who was niftar this afternoon at 91, at a simchas beis hashoeiva in Boro Park, where he came to teach chassidus for decades.