It is with sadness that we report the petirah of Rebbetzin Tova Kalman a”h, who was nifteres suddenly at her home in Bnei Brak at the age of 83. Her petirah came without warning — she had been feeling unwell and within moments was no longer responding. Hatzalah was summoned but were unable to revive her.

Rebbetzin Kalman was born and raised in Bnei Brak, into a home that was steeped in Torah and avodas Hashem from every direction. Her father, Harav Yehudah Dov (Berel) Tshishensky zt”l, was one of the last survivors of the famed town of Ger in Poland, where he had grown up as a child in the very court of the Imrei Emes zt”l.

Her husband, Harav Pinchas zt”l was a talmid of the Chazon Ish zt”l who had been among the founding generation of the Kollel Chazon Ish in Bnei Brak. And the home she built with her husband was situated in the very apartment where the Chazon Ish’s rebbetzin had lived out her final years — a home that breathed the kedushah of that generation.

Rav Pinchas went on to learn his entire life in the Kollel Chazon Ish, davening each day in the nearby Lederman shul, known to all as a hidden tzaddik who walked with great humility.
He maintained a close bond with his neighbor the Sar HaTorah, Harav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, having learned together with him as a chavrusa before his marriage. Harav Chaim presented Reb Pinchas with a Sefer Chochmas Adam as a wedding gift, inscribed “l’yom chasunaso, from (Rav) Chaim Kanievsky” — though Reb Pinchas, in his great humility, crossed out the title “HaRav HaGaon” that Rav Chaim had written before his name. When Rav Pinchas was niftar during COVID and the levayah was small, Harav Chaim stood watching from his window.

Her father Rav Berel, who was known affectionately among the Gerrer chassidim as “Berel Gerer,” was regarded as one of the most reliable and vast repositories of Gur’s tradition. When the Gerrer leadership sought to verify a minhag, it was to Reb Berl that they turned. Based on his precise recollections, the ohel of the Chiddushei HaRim and the Sfas Emes in the town of Ger was restored, along with other graves in Poland. The Beis Yisrael zt”l himself remarked of the Tshishensky family: “All of Reb Berl’s children are yirei Shamayim, refined and good.” Reb Berl’s wife had founded the Bnos Agudas Yisrael organization in Bnei Brak and established mosdos for the chareidi community there, with the encouragement and support of the Chazon Ish.

Even before her marriage, the Rebbetzin had forged her own bond with the world of the Chazon Ish. As a young woman, she used to assist the Chazon Ish’s rebbetzin, caring for her with great devotion in her later years. When the Chazon Ish’s rebbetzin was nifteres, the apartment — which belonged to Kollel Chazon Ish — was entrusted to Rebbetzin Kalman and her husband, and she lived there until her final day.

Her husband was himself a figure of great stature. Born in Budapest to his father Rav Avraham Yaakov hy”d, he lost both parents in the Holocaust and came to Eretz Yisrael with his aunt, where he was raised in the Ponevezh orphanage in Bnei Brak. There he came under the influence of  Chazon Ish zt”l, who even purchased his tefillin for his bar mitzvah.

Those who knew Reb Pinchas recalled stories that spoke to a purity of middos unusual even among the outstanding. On one occasion, while spending Shabbos at a son’s home in Moshav Tifrach, he woke in the morning and told his son quietly that he would not be eating the cholent. When pressed for a reason, he shared that he had dreamed that he was carrying the cholent outside the eruv. Father and son soon discovered that the eruv had indeed fallen during Shabbos — and that the cholent had been moved before Shabbos to a neighbor’s home that was outside it.

The Chazon Ish had once been asked whether there are Lamed-Vav tzaddikim in this generation. A young bochur was present in the room that day. The Chazon Ish replied that yes, there are — and pointed to Reb Pinchas, saying: he is one of them.

It was a condition of their shidduch that Rav Pinchas, who came from a Hungarian background, would don a shtreimel, as befitting her Gerrer family. He did so willingly. Their home was a place of tznius, emunah and kedushah. As a teacher, Rebbetzin Kalman was beloved by her students, to whom she imparted a deep sense of emunah. The last act she performed before her petirah was the iber-maissering of food(“double maaser”- a chumra practiced by talmidim of the Chazon Ish, Briskers and other groups, who don’t wish to rely solely on the maaser that is under kashrus supervision) — a practice she had observed meticulously her entire life, as was the custom of the Chazon Ish.

Rebbetzin Kalman a”h is survived by her children and grandchildren, who continue the legacy of these great homes.

Notably, the rebbetzin was nifteres on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, but was brought to kevurah on 2 Sivan; her husband’s s yahrtzeit.

She was buried in the Segulah cemetery in Petach Tikvah.

Yehi zichra baruch.