Rabbi Matis Blum - of Blessed Memory

R' Matis Blum (Matzav)

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Rav Matis Blum this past Shabbos. He succumbed to the coronavirus at a relatively young age. I believe he was in his mid 60s.

Those who follow this blog will note that I often use his Sefer, Torah L'Daas as a reference a great majority of the time on Pre Yom Tov posts.

I love that Sefer. It consists of a collection of Divrei Torah on the Parsha culled from a variety of sources ranging from ancient to the contemporary.

Not only do I use it here, I reference it at the Shabbos morning Seudah choosing from the many Divrei Torah he cites on that week’s Parsha. These Divrei Torah were originally distributed as weekly Parsha sheets and eventually combined into his multi volume Sefer.

Torah L’Daas contains not only concise Divrei Torah - but also a more extensive analysis of the subject matter dealt with in each Parsha. Therein he references various discussions and debates by Poskim throughout the ages. I often jokingly referred to it as a ‘cheater's manuel’ of Torah knowledge. One can pretend to be an expert in quite a few subjects by simply memorizing those sections of his Sefer.

The Sefer was written in easy to understand Hebrew using expressions familiar to those of us that attended Yeshivos for any length of time.

I never met him. But 2 people that knew him personally told me that in addition to beig a huge Talmid Chacham - what a a Mentch he was! He was surely worthy of that title - fulfilling the Talmudic dictum of Derech Eretz Kadma LaTorah.

According to YWN Rav Blum was the Rav of Cong. Torah Lodaas, a Shul in Queens and  taught 1000s of Frum girls at various schools in Brooklyn and queens.

I was a fan and am very sorry to see him succumb to this insidious virus.

It is perplexing beyond words how this virus affects each individual. According to a news report I heard this morning, up 50% people that contract it, never have any symptoms! They walk around freely unaware that they are spreading it. And there are people like Rav Blum that are healthy but so adversely affected that they get seriously ill - some of whom die shortly afterwards. Unfortunately Rav Blum was among the latter.

Tzadik V’Ra Lo. No answers. Only questions.

His Petira (death) is a huge loss for Klal Yisroel. Yehi Zichro Baruch - May his memory be for a blessing