Memory Lane: Rav Shloime Figa

As we have noted before in this collumn, Boro Park was home to a prominent Novaradoker contingent which began with the establishment of Yeshiva Beis Yosef on 49th Street by Rav Avrohom Joffen. 

Following the war, the graduates of Novaradok from throughout Russia and Poland began to stream into Brooklyn, dusted themselves off from the horrors of the war, and continued their unique path of Torah and mussar along with their chaverim from back home. 

Rav Shloime Figa, a ga’on in Torah and mussar, was one of them, and served as longtime maggid shiur and mashpiah in Boro Park’s Yeshiva Sha’arei Yosher, where he shaped thousands of talmidim who carry him in their hearts till this very day. 

Novaradok of Yore 

Reb Shloime was born in 1917 in the Polish town of Makava (Maków Mazowiecki), 100 km from Warsaw, into the home of his parents, Reb Yaakov Alter and Roiza, who were ardent Gerer chassidim. R’ Yaakov Alter was a businessman, but also a talmid chochom and masmid, while Roiza was a daughter of  

Even before his bar mitzvah, young Shloime was a mevakeish, and his search for truth led him to Novarodok, to the yeshiva Beis Yosef in Mezerich, Poland (Międzyrzec). There, he would become one of the bnei aliyah., and, for the remainder of his life, he would carry these influences of Novaradok. 

“He could repeat a few words of mussar, over and over, with deep passion and emotion—until it reached the depths of your soul,” related a talmid. “He would remove his tefillin with such longing, and such emotion… and the same went for every mitzvah.”   

In Międzyrzec, Shloime became a “rosh hava’ad”—the head of a chaburah of bachurim who engaged in this search together. Above him was Rav Dovid Blecher, the head of the yeshiva, who later was instrumental in founding Yeshiva Beis Yosef in Bnei Brak. Another one of his rebbeim was the legendary Rav Nissan Tzelniker, known as “Rav Nissele Babroisker.” Rav Shloime would speak for the rest of his life about in incredible influence that his rebbeim had on him, and the fire they imbued in him. 

Rav Yisroel Orliansky, a prominent Novaradoker in his own right (and later a Rosh Yeshiva in Novaradok in Eretz Yisroel), later recalled his days under the influence of his rosh hava’ad, Rav Shloime, with great emotion and longing. “The words that he spoke then etched themselves in my heart to this very day…sixty years later, I can still hear his mussar learning with such emotion ringing in my ears.” 

Many Talmidim   

The war years were extremely difficult for Rav Shloime and his chaverim, but— with the force of mussar which they continued to learn ardently—they transcended the depths of the darkness and frigidity of Siberia.  

Arriving in America following the war, he was concerned about finding a zivug who shared his aspirations to spend his life learning Torah, and continue in the elevated ways of Novaradok. He went to the Satmar Rebbe, who made the shidduch with Henya Knohl who had expressed her desire to marry a bachur of great caliber. She would remain his partner in his avodas hakodesh until her passing.

Indeed, he sat down to learn for the ensuing nine years in the Kollel Beis Yosef Novaradok. Following this, he joined the initiative of his chaverim, Rav Chaim Mordechai Weinkrantz and Rav Yechiel Michel Schwartz, and established Yeshiva Ohel Yaakov, in the name of the Baranovicher Mashgiach, Rav Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky, a son-in-law of the Alter of Novardok. 

The mossad was a prominent one during its time, and Rav Shloime was one of the heads of the yeshiva, and taught the highest class. “He was an outstanding rebbi,” recalled Rav Mordechai Joffen. “He delivered shiurim with tremendous erudition and great depth.” But his real influence on the talmidim in Ohel Yaakov was through his transmission of mussar—igniting a fire for avodas Hashem within his talmidim, just as he had done in Novaradok of yore. 

When the yeshiva closed, he joined Yeshiva Shaarei Yosher, which was founded in Boro Park by Rav Yitzchok Koppelman, later Rosh Yeshiva of Lucerne, in tribute to his alma matter, the Grodno Yeshiva. There he shaped and molded generations of talmidim for the final decades of his life. 

He had learned under Rav Avrohom Joffen, the son-in-law of the Alter of Novarodok, and a talmid of Rav Chaim Brisker. He would repeat much Torah from his rebbe, and of his rebbe, Rav Chaim, in his shiurim. But here too, his primary influence was by shaping the talmidim 

Rav Shloime was a ba’al mussar to his core, and lived differently than most people, having internalized the teachings and the philosophy of Novaradok. 

Rav Shloime was niftar in Adar of the year 2006, having served Hashem with intensity even in his last days on this earth, preparing himself for his final journey to the World of Truth.