obituaries
Philadelphia Rabbinic Leader
Dov Ahron Brisman Dies at 69
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of the Brisman family
Y aacov Mayer Brisman is sure
that his father, Rabbi Dov Ahron
Brisman, must have slept at some point;
he just can’t remember him ever going
up to bed. Instead, the rabbi was down-
stairs in his study, reading the Torah and
Talmud, learning and thinking.

One time, the mother of one of Yaacov’s
friends called the house at 2:30 a.m.

because her son had not come home that
night. He was at the Brisman residence.

Rabbi Brisman answered on the fi rst ring
and sounded “fresh, newly woken up,”
Yaacov said.

“He was just studying,” the son added.

“He had this incredible diligence about
him.” On Sept. 19, this Talmudic scholar’s
lifelong pursuit of Jewish knowledge and
wisdom ended. Rabbi Brisman died in
his sleep at his home in Philadelphia. He
was 69.

Brisman is survived by his wife Libby
Brisman and their children Yaacov, Matti
Stahl, Fayga Laya Taylor and Gedalia
Zev Brisman. More than 1,000 peo-
ple attended his funeral at Goldsteins’
Rosenberg’s Raphael-Sacks Funeral
Home in Philadelphia, according to
Yaacov Mayer Brisman. About 200 came
to his funeral in Israel.

Rabbis who knew Brisman called his
death “a huge loss” and “a void for our
city.” During his life, the scholar was
not merely a scholar. He also led the
Orthodox Beit Din of Philadelphia, the
Keystone-K Community Kashrus of
Greater Philadelphia and the Orthodox
congregation Young Israel of Elkins Park.

He was the right man for all of those
jobs because he was “a world-acclaimed
Talmudic scholar,” according to his
brother-in-law, Rabbi Isaac Leizerowski,
who leads Beth Midrash HaRav B’Nai
Jacob in Philadelphia. But he was also
the right man because he understood
how to relate to people. Despite being
a “world-acclaimed Talmudic scholar,”
Brisman never took himself too seriously.

“He was your everyday guy. Accessible,
sense of humor, a good friend,”
Leizerowski said. “He was self-eff acing;
he was humble; he was modest.”
Th e rabbi’s indefatigable study of the
a loan, how do you han-
dle a Jewish-owned bank
that tries to do just that?
Th ose were some of the
many modern questions
that Brisman received
over the years, accord-
ing to Rabbi Mordecai
Terebelo, a contem-
porary and friend, as
well as the rabbi for
Congregation Ahavas
Torah in Northeast
Philadelphia. His responses were
Rabbi Dov Ahron Brisman spent a lifetime
oft en 10 pages in length.

engaged in the study of Jewish law.

Aft er the response, he
Torah and Talmud developed the kind of attached a glossary with references and
encyclopedic mind that is rare today. He explanations. His opinion, as Leizerowski
knew “the whole gamut of Jewish stud- explained, was “valued.”
ies,” Leizerowski said.

“He went back to the sources and
Rabbi Brisman’s recall was unmatched, plowed over it,” Terebelo said. “Life and
according to his brother-in-law. He could
sit down with a stack of 500 pieces of
paper, start writing and fi ll all 500 sheets
— without looking at a single note. It was
all in his head.

And then the fi nal product would be
in “the most beautifully written style”
that would remind rabbis of “Talmudic
study from 500 years ago,” Leizerowski
said. During his 69 years, Brisman wrote
books and edited others. And when he
died, he left behind boxes of manuscripts
that could still fi ll as many as 90 books,
Leizerowski estimated.

“His pen was incredible,” the brother-
in-law said. “He was a non-stop fountain
of Jewish thought, of Jewish knowledge.”
Brisman’s scholarship started with his
ability to understand and interpret old
texts. But since the rabbi lived in the 20th
and 21st centuries, it was his ability to
apply them that set him apart.

Questions came to him from all over
the world, according to Leizerowski,
from chief rabbis of cities and countries.

What’s your opinion? How would you
deal with this?
If you buy a new pot, how would you
take it into the mikvah since it’s elec-
tronic and can’t go in water? How do you
deal with going to the hospital and using
all of its electronic features, like doors,
on Shabbos? Since you’re not supposed
to be charged interest when you take out
death takes precedence over everything
in Jewish law. So of course you’re going
to go to the hospital. What’s the best way
to do it?”
Leizerowski said that Brisman viewed
the Talmud as the “blueprint for Jewish
life.” He also believed that the Talmudic
scholar could fi nd an answer to almost
every question in this essential body of
wisdom. And that that was true even
today. “Th ere were things 100 years ago that
were new,” Leizerowski explained. “We
fashion our lives to fi t the Torah philos-
ophy, not the Torah philosophy to fi t our
lives.” Aft er Brisman died, his family had
questions about the laws of mourning,
according to Yaacov Mayer Brisman. But
they had no one to call. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 21