Memory Lane: Reb Mendel Brachfeld

Boro Park in the postwar era was home to many of the she’eris hapleitah, those remnants from the ashes of the Churban who rebuilt so valiantly and heroically in Boro Park of yore. 

Reb Mendel Brachfeld was a brilliant talmid chochom and masmid otzum who spent every spare moment engrossed in learning with diligence and love. With his brilliant mind and phenomenal recall, he towered in his mastery of Torah, leading his beloved Bobover Rebbe to proclaim that “with his passing, Bobov has lost its crown.” 

Myślenice

Reb Mendel was born in the Polish town of Myślenice, 30 kilometers south of Krakow, in the year 1917. His father was Reb Yosef Hillel, one of the distinguished Bobover chassidim in the town. His mother was the granddaughter of Rav Moshe Yaakov Scharf, the rov of Oshpitzin (later named Auschwitz by the Germans, ym”sh). 

From his early youth, his brilliance shone forth. His father journeyed with him to the Kedushas Tzion of Bobov who greatly enjoyed speaking with the young boy, and testified that he would emerge into greatness. 

He learned by the rebbeim and mashpi’im of the Bobover Yeshiva Eitz Chaim which had a branch in Myślenice, and as he grew older, he corresponded in Torah with the gedolim of his time, including the Rogachover Ga’on, the Rabbonim of Dombrowa and Stanisławów, who were renowned ga’onim in their time. 

He continued in his learning with tremendous hasmodoh until the outbreak of WWII when that entire world became engulfed in flames. At first, he found himself in the Krakow ghetto. There he learned b’chavrusah with Rav Shaul Ettinger, the rov of Podgórze. 

Later he was incarcerated in the Płaszów concentration camp, near Krakow, and afterward he was sent to many camps throughout Europe where he suffered terribly. There, his strength waned from day to day, and he hovered between life and death on many occasions. Each time, a miracle occurred and he remained alive. 

Throughout these endurances, he managed to put on tefillin every day, and had great mesirus nefesh for learning and doing mitzvos under the most trying circumstances. 

Reb Mendel would regularly recount his war experiences, feeling that this was a mandate of zochor eis aher asah lecha Amoleik, to remember what Amoleik perpetrated upon the Jewish People. Each and every time, he the tears would choke him up and he would be unable to continue. 

Brooklyn 

Arriving in New York, he was reunited with the Kedushas Tzion’s son and successor, the Bobover Ruv, zt”l. 

It did not take long until he was drafted by the rov to apply his sharp and erudite mind to arrange and organize the writings of the Kedushas Tzion into print. For many months, he sat together with the ruv engrossed in the work of publishing his illustrious father’s work. Through his efforts, the Kedushas Tzion on Torah and Mo’adim was brought to print and has been republished many times in the years since. In general, he always found an open door by the Bobover Rov, who held him in great esteem. 

Throughout the years that he worked in the diamond industry, he delivered many shiurim in depth and with great iyun, for lomdim and for the bachurim of the chassidus. Even as he worked,  there were always seforim open before him. 

Whenever he came into the beis medrash, he was always surrounded by men, young and old, who approached him with all their Torah queries. With patience and wisdom, he answered each one to satisfaction. 

In his later years, he retired from business, and dedicated his days and nights to Torah learning. He was renowned as an expert in manuscripts, because he loved and was well-versed their contents as well as their historical value.  He was also tasked with publishing a number of old seforim that had never been brought to print, and was appointed by the Bobover Rov to head the publication of the Bobover Torah publication Kerem Shloime. 

In the midst of his avodas hakodesh, he was niftar suddenly in the year 1984, at the age of sixty-six, leaving behind an incredible Torah legacy and children and grandchildren who follow in his ways.