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SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
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A Tzaddik in Our Midst
R’ Pinchas Mordechai Solow, zt”l By Rabbi Dovid Bender
P
inchas Mordechai Solow, zt”l, was a real person. There was no fakeness to him. The Chofetz Chaim writes that when a person opens his mouth, he has to be careful about ten things. The first one is lashon hara, the second is rechilus, the third one is sheker, and last week we learned about the next thing to be careful about: chanufa, flattery. Flattery comes from being fake. But R’ Pinchas was the opposite of fake. He was genuine and real. R’ Pinchas was zecher tzaddik l’vracha. I’m using the word “tzaddik” because there were many choshuvim who called him “tzaddik.” At the levaya, the choshuvim of Far Rockaway were there to hear about him and to be melave him. Rav Dov Bressler, Rav Yehoshua Kurland, Rav Yisroel Meir Blumenkrantz, and Rav Shaul Chill all spoke at his levaya. So did his sister, and his daughter, and Mr. Barry Jacobson spoke as well. R’ Pinchas got up every morning, at 5 o’clock in the morning, to learn Torah. He then davened at Rav Blumenkrantz’s shul and said brachos out loud for the kehilla. He almost literally opened the doors to the shul each morning. Every morning, he said brachos out loud, clearly. He would go to Sh’or Yoshuv, to Rav Kurland’s chaburah at night twice a week for over twenty years, to learn. Rav Kurland recalls, “He knew Mishnayos so well that numerous times during the shiur he would ask questions from different Mishnayos being that he was so fluent with different Mishnayos.” Rav Kurland also said that R’ Pin-
chas had a transparent neshama. He was the “real deal” and a true eved Hashem. He was very close to Rav Dov Bressler from HILI and gained a tremendous amount of Torah from him. He remembered Rav Bressler’s divrei Torah from years before. In fact, if Rav Bressler would give over a different approach on a certain inyan from the last time he spoke about that inyan, R’ Pinchas would point it out. He was also very close and gained a lot of Torah from Rav Yisroel Meir Blumenkrantz. He was so thirsty for Torah. His learning was done without any fanfare. Sometimes, you could get fooled and miss his gadlus, be-
We at Darchei Torah saw this; he learned in the beis medrash or in HILI. In between Mincha and Maariv, in HILI, where he used to daven, there is a few minutes break. During the break, he would go to the bima and he would say Tehillim out loud, word by word. Much of his davening was out loud – especially his brachos during Shacharis. He was unashamed of his connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. On Friday night, during kabbalas Shabbos, he would dance with such love, a burst of genuine excitement to greet the Shabbos queen. He did this for years – before anyone else would dance during kabbalas Shabbos.
R’ Pinchas had a transparent neshama. He was the “real deal” and a true eved Hashem.
cause from the outside he could have appeared as a poshute Yid. But the opposite was true. His neshama was shining. He lived a life on a different level; he didn’t care about externals. His only concern was for Hashem and His Torah. As Rav Pinchas Wachsman told me, he always felt that he had a heilige neshama. R’ Pinchas always came early to davening, and he utilized the time to learn Mishnayos. He learned, b’chavrusa, with R’ Yaakov Berman.
The last day of his life, he went on a vacation to Pennsylvania. He and his wife and daughter went to Lakewood for Shabbos – the last Shabbos of his life. On Sunday morning, he davened in Lakewood and went to learn in Bais Medrash Govoha. Then he went shopping with his wife. They settled into the hotel later that day and then R’ Pinchas drove 20 minutes for Mincha/Maariv in Yardley, Pennsylvania. On the way back, he was killed in a car crash. That’s how
he spent the last day of his life. His last act was about making sure he got a minyan. A few days before he passed away, R’ Pinchas told Reb Daniel Waldman, at the Kaminsky wedding on Wednesday night, that because his job at the Board of Ed doesn’t start for a few weeks, he wanted to learn in Kollel for a month. That’s what his life was about. Always trying to find time to learn. He always seemed to be running – running to do mitzvos, running to help out. One day, he went to get the mop from the janitor’s closet in Yeshiva Darchei Torah, so he could clean the floor at HILI, where he davened. He looked forward to making sure the shul looked clean. He happily cleaned up – he was so happy to help and do for others. Rav Dov Bressler, his rav, recalls that he was the leader in HILI. He was gavoah m’kol ha’am figuratively and spiritually. On Simchas Torah, he was the main dancer in shul. He kept on dancing and was the leader of the dancing. Eizehu ashir ha’sameach b’chelko, he was content and happy with whatever he was doing. If the shul needed someone to daven for the amud, he was happy to do it; if someone else wanted to do it, he was happy for them to lead the kehilla. Whatever was needed to be done, he was happy to do. R’ Pinchas lived on Hurley and Gateway for a while. One of his neighbors, Rabbi Avi Indich, told me that every time he saw him, R’ Pinchas used to always have a vort to share with him. Rav Uri Orlian said the
