HaRav Gavriel Toledano zt"l
The world of Torah and yeshivos was plunged into mourning this past Thursday 16 Marcheshvan with the bitter tidings of the loss of the crown of Sephardic Jewry, HaRav Gavriel Toledano ztvk"l, Rosh Yeshivas Ohr Baruch and author of 10 volumes of Mitz'adei Gaver, who merited raising the banner of Torah for the Sephardi community by producing thousands of disciples. HaRav Toledano passed away in the seventy-ninth year of his life.
HaRav Gavriel was born in Meknes, Morocco, on the 2nd of Shevat, 5697. His father was Rav Shlomo zt"l, and his mother was Rivka, daughter of HaRav Baruch Toledano zt"l. In this home of pure Torah and yirah, he grew and was imbued with the heritage of his forebears, boasting the uninterrupted lineage of holy sons dating back to HaRav Rephael Toledano from Sicily and sages from the Spanish Expulsion.
He was educated in Meknes as his father sent him at great sacrifice to study by the melamdin of the city. He showed a tremendous love for Torah from an early age and promise as a budding talmid chacham according to his blessed talents and exceptional diligence in toil and Torah.
When he reached his bar mitzvah, his parents were approached by the messengers of HaRav Y Chaikin who had come to Morocco expressly to gather up budding young scholars to come to his yeshiva in Aix-les-Bain, France. He had heard about the yeshiva and was eager to go there, even by himself and at his tender age, in order to grow in Torah and piety. He also convinced some of his young peers to go as well.
One day during this early period, his uncle, HaRav Yaakov Toledano, came to deliver a talk in the yeshiva. He was delighted by the tremendous yiras Shomayim that enveloped him and convinced the young Gavriel that if he truly wished to grow in Torah and refined middos, should go to Eretz Yisrael and study in one of the famous yeshivos there. The young lad decided to go to Yeshivas Ponovezh.
He received a form letter from the administration that he had been accepted. This letter enabled him to get a reduction for the sea fare. He was already eighteen when he finally got to the yeshiva. He thought that he had already been accepted as indicated by the letter, but the students there said that he first had to undergo an examination by the roshei yeshiva. Full of enthusiasm, he went directly to the Ponovezher Rav and asked to be tested. His fervor was so convincing that he was accepted on the spot.
He progressed very rapidly and soon numbered among the outstanding students, acquiring a vast wealth of Torah knowledge from the roshei yeshiva and rabbonim, whose teachings he drank avidly and humbly.
After about two months, he realized that he was being held back by a lack of knowledge of the language and considered transferring to a yeshiva where they studied in his mother tongue. When HaRav Shach heard of this, realizing that this student was destined for a brilliant future, he hired a special teacher for Yiddish so that Gavriel would not leave Ponovezh, and so he stayed on.
Throughout his years, he kept up with the studies being learned in the Beis Medrash and was a veritable lion, fighting the battle of Torah, determined through indefatigable effort to understand every sugya with full clarity. He was very close to his masters, HaRav D Povarsky, HaRav S Rozovsky, with whom he would discuss the learning day by day, and was exceptionally close to his chief mentor, HaRav Shach, with whom he delved into every subject in depth.
When he came of marriageable age, he married Geula Jacqueline, a member of the Toledano family who, as one of the first students of the Seminary in Tangier, sought a talmid chacham who would devote all of his energies to Torah study. Together they established a true house of Torah and avodas Hashem, living in Gateshead, England.
During those early years, Rav Gavriel studied in the Gateshead kollel. For seven years he acquired much more knowledge and yiras Shomayim, assisted by a great measure of Divine assistance.
He spent the next three years as a rosh yeshiva in Strassberg, and was a very angel for the elite student body, striking each student, as it were, with his wand and telling him to grow according to the foundations of and approach to Torah study as he had acquired in Yeshivas Ponovezh.
In Elul, 5733, he and his family made aliya. He was accepted as head of the kibbutz level in Yeshivat Porat Yosef in Katamon, Jerusalem, where he continued his lifetime work of producing excellent disciples.
Visiting Yeshivas Ponovezh one time, he was noticed immediately by HaRav Shach, who called out in greeting, "Rabi Gavriel!" Many decades had passed since he had studied there, but this fervent immediate recognition would always stand out in his memory as a sign of the Rosh Yeshiva's affection and concern.
Rabi Gavriel was stricken by a high fever in 5747 which refused to respond to medication. When HaRav Shach heard of this, he picked himself up and traveled to Rabbi Gavriel's home together with two other avreichim, declaring that they constituted a Beis Din and ordered him to get well. Sure enough, by the next morning, the fever had subsided and he quickly recovered.
In 5735 Rav Gavriel founded the Mesivta Or Baruch, together with his brother HaRav Michael shlita. Their aim was to establish an institution to bring students of Sephardic backgrounds to the highest levels of Torah learning. Soon he founded the yeshiva ketanah Or Baruch, headed by his brother-in-law HaRav Avraham Amar shlita, and in Elul 5737, at the urging of HaRav Shach, he opened the yeshiva gedola Or Baruch. which grew and prospered to become a great source of talmidei chachamim in all aspects of Torah study and community service.
In addition to his clear shiurim which became very well known, he was a man of deep feeling and thought, who produced well-rounded Torah scholars.
For the last twenty years he had been seriously unwell. Nonetheless he continued his regular sedorim and tefillos in the yeshiva. Once about six years ago he wondered out loud why, if yissurim are so beloved, why HaKodosh Boruch Hu visits them upon the elderly and not upon the young who are stronger. He immediately replied that youth would not have the maturity to accept them and only with age does one realize how beloved are yissurim.
He finally returned his soul to his Maker on the yahrtzeit of his great rebbe Maran HaRav Shach zt"l.
The levaya, attended by thousands, left from his yeshiva. HaRav Shmuel Auerbach was the first maspid, followed by his brother HaRav Michael. Next were his sons, HaRav Doniel, HaRav Rafael Baruch and HaRav Shmuel followed by the mashgiach of the yeshiva HaRav Eliezer Menasheh Donat.
He was buried in the Rabbinical Section of the Har Hamenuchos cemetery.
