BD”E: Hagaon Harav Chaim Wosner, Zt”l, Rav of Zichron Meir, Bnei Brak

The Torah world was once again plunged into mourning with the petirah Sunday of Hagaon Harav Chaim Meir Wosner, zt”l, Rav of Zichron Meir in Bnei Brak and Rosh Yeshivah, Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. He was 82 at his passing.

Harav Chaim Meir was the oldest son of Posek Hador Hagaon Harav Shmuel Halevi Wosner, zt”l, the Shevet HaLevi, and his mother Rebbetzin Rivkah, a”h. He was born on 1 Sivan 5698/1938 in Vienna, Austria.

His parents moved to Eretz Yisrael when he was a child, and he managed, b’chasdei Shamayim, to survive the Holocaust, at the home of his maternal grandparents, and with the help of Chassidei Umos Haolam. At the age of eight he also traveled to Eretz Yisrael where he met once again with his parents.

As a bachur, he learned mostly under the tutelage of his esteemed father.

When he came of age, he married Rebbetzin Shulamis, the daughter of Harav Avraham Eliyahu Meizes, zt”l, a Rav of the Eidah Chareidis in Yerushalayim.

After his marriage, Rav Chaim was appointed to serve as a maggid shiur in his father’s yeshivah, Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. He later served as a Rav and Dayan in the Beis Din of his father, in Bnei Brak.

Rav Chaim was later appointed Rav of the Satmar community in London, a post he held for 18 years.

Several years ago, shortly before his father’s petirah, his father called him back to Eretz Yisrael, to live near him in Bnei Brak. His father, the Shevet HaLevi, asked him to stay on in Eretz Yisrael and appointed him – during his lifetime – as Raavad of the Zichron Meir neighborhood, alongside himself, who was the Gaavad.

On the first night of Pesach 5775/2015, Harav Shmuel Wosner was niftar. During the levayah, his son Rav Chaim was appointed to serve in all his father’s positions, as Gaavad of Zichron Meir and Rosh Yeshivah in Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin.

Rav Chaim delivered many shiurim in the yeshivah, as would his father, and was also noted for his Shabbos Hagadol and Shabbos Shuvah drashos.

He recently caught the coronavirus, and was hospitalized in serious condition. Many tefillos were held on his behalf, but on Sunday afternoon, he returned his Neshamah to its Maker.

He is survived by, lhbch”l, his wife, his brothers and sisters and his sons: Harav Yosef Binyamin, Rosh Yeshivas Chachmei Lubin; Harav Avraham Eliyahu of Bnei Brak; Harav Mordechai Ze’ev, Rav of Khal Machzeh Avraham in New York; Harav Moshe Shimon, Rav in Chateau Park, Lakewood; Harav Aharon, Rosh Kollel Sheiris Yosef; Harav Akiva, Rav in Yerushalayim; Harav Yisrael of New York, and HaRav Shulem Wosner of Manchester. His daughters are married to: Harav Mordechai Gelber, Rav of Khal Shevet HaLevi in Ashdod; Harav Shraga Hager, the Kossover Rebbe; Harav Shalom Zvi Englander, Rosh Kollel Machnovka-Belz in London; Harav Ben Zion Hirschler, Maggid Shiur in Yeshivas Chernobyl and Harav Aharon Shimon Taub, son of the Kalover Rebbe. He is also survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as thousands of talmidim the world over.

Yehi zichro baruch.