"At Every Meeting He Spoke Only About Emunas Chachamim" • Rav Shalom Arush Eulogizes Rabbi Chananya

At the entrance to the home of our teacher the Rav, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, on HaChoma HaShlishit Street in Jerusalem, stood the bier. The masses crowded together in a terrible silence. And into this silence stepped up to the podium one who had known Rabbi Avraham Chananya ztz"l for many years — the great Gaon Rav Shalom Arush shlit"a, one of the greatest disseminators of Breslov teachings in the generation. The eulogy he delivered was short, broken, and saturated with copious tears — yet it was as distilled as the core of the deceased's own Torah, devoid of verbal embellishments, exposed like the soul that had ascended to the supernal realms at that exact moment.

"At every meeting he spoke only about emunas chachamim (faith in the sages)"

"Rabbi Avraham. I heard from him all the time about emunas chachamim. Every time I met him, he said, he spoke with me about emunas chachamim. Emunas chachamim."

These were the first words of Rav Arush from the podium. Not flowery words of praise, not a list of the deceased's virtues, not Chassidic tales. Just one simple and powerful testimony — from the mouth of a Torah scholar who knew the deceased for many years: at every meeting, at every opportunity that arose, Rabbi Avraham repeated only this phrase: emunas chachamim. This was the backbone of all his service, the core of all his words, the foundation upon which his fifty years in the shadow of our teacher the Rav shlit"a were built.

"These are the words I heard from him. And so we will all learn from him that the main thing is emunas chachamim."

"He spoke of our Rav, may he live, may he have length of days and years"

But R' Avraham did not speak of emunas chachamim as an abstract concept. He spoke of it as a living halacha — and within it, as one inseparable point, he repeatedly mentioned our teacher the Rav shlit"a. And so Rav Arush recounted, in a voice growing increasingly broken:

"Every meeting, he only spoke with me about this — emunas chachamim. He spoke of our Rav, may he live, may he have length of days and years, amen. He spoke, he strengthened this matter that all our service depends on emunas chachamim."

Every day of his severe illness — in every brief encounter, in every word he managed to utter from his sick vocal cords — R' Avraham invested exclusively in one thing: to deepen in the heart of every student the devotion to the tzaddik of the generation. May he have length of days and years. That we should not leave. That the connection should not weaken. That the love should not fade.

"That what the tzaddik does in this world, he continues to do in the Next World"

And from amidst the broken tears, Rav Arush burst into a heart-trembling prayer — a prayer directed upwards, to the deceased himself whose soul had ascended at that hour to the supernal heights:

"I ask of Rabbi Avraham, peace be upon him, that what the tzaddik does in this world he continues to do in the Next World. He should pray for all of us, for all the people of Israel. May we all merit emunas chachamim, and that the light of our Rav, may he live — may we truly merit that it continues."

"Who goes to the wilderness to engage in hisbodedus (personal prayer in seclusion) before dawn?"

And then Rav Arush told a tiny story, in which one word revealed the very essence of the avodas Hashem of the students of Rebbe Nachman — that which separates them from the rest of the world, that which causes emunas chachamim to be for them not an idea, but a daily action:

"How did someone say to me? I said: Look, who goes to the wilderness to engage in hisbodedus before dawn? Look — only the students of our Rav. That tells you everything. The service of the Rav. Tikkun Chatzos. Avodas Hashem."

In the hours when all the people of Israel are sleeping — there, at the margins of the night, stand the students of our teacher the Rav shlit"a. They go out to the wilderness. They engage in hisbodedus. They recite Tikkun Chatzos. They pour out their hearts to their Father in Heaven. This is the service of the Rav. This is what R' Avraham taught us over fifty years. And this — as Rav Arush noted — is what we must continue.

And before Rav Arush descended from the podium — with words that were part eulogy, part testament, part prayer — he gathered all the pain of the crowd into one single request:

"We ask him to pray, that we truly merit, that all of the Jewish people will have complete emunas chachamim (faith in the sages), and may Mashiach come soon, amen."

Rabbi Avraham Chananya ztz"l — a hidden tzaddik whose loyalty to his rabbi was absolute; a man who in every meeting, in every word, mentioned only one thing: emunas chachamim, and the light of our teacher the Rav shlit"a. May it be His will that his merit protects us, that we truly merit complete emunas chachamim, that Hashem prolongs the days and years of our teacher the Rav shlit"a, and may we all merit the revelation of the King Mashiach speedily in our days, amen and amen.