Yosef Yozel Horwitz - Novardok Yeshivas

Novardok Yeshivas

In consonance with his stress on unwaivering bitachon (trust in Divine providence), Horwitz's followers would board trains in time of civil war with no fear and establish hundreds of yeshivas in Russia. After the rise of communism, the students of these yeshivas fled to Poland, crossing the border to Poland illegally.

Eventually, the movement got involved in a financial dispute with other yeshivas over funding. The leaders were claiming each Novardok yeshiva should be considered as one entire yeshiva. Opponents wanted all Novardok yeshivas to be considered as one. The Novardok yeshivas were all called "Yeshivas Beis Yosef" in honour of Horwitz.

The directors of these yeshivas were in constant contact with Horwitz, who guided and visited them, spending nearly every Shabbos in a different town. Since he was quite elderly by that time, his closest students tried to dissuade him from making such journeys. He would respond by citing the verse (Genesis 12:9), “And Avraham journeyed, continuously traveling,” on which Malbim comments, “He went to sanctify Hashem’s name.”

One year, Horwitz spent Rosh Hashana in Homel, Shabbat Shuvah in Kiev and Yom Kippur in Kharkov, cities which are very distant from one another.

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