Nearly a month after the shocking murder of the brilliant avreich Harav Yishai Por, zt”l, inside the beis medrash of Kollel Chazon Ish in Bnei Brak on Erev Shavuos, new details about his remarkable life — and the events leading up to his petirah — have emerged from the heartbroken testimony of his chavrusos and fellow lomdei Torah, according to a Monday report in Bechadrei Charedim.

The accounts were published in the kollel’s bulletin, Kovetz Gilyonos, and have since been widely disseminated. Together they paint a portrait of an individual who was wholly removed from the vanities of this world — a man who walked the streets of Bnei Brak as though already dwelling in another realm entirely.

Harav Pur carried no mobile phone and scrupulously avoided all conversation unrelated to Torah and mitzvos. A fellow avreich who learned alongside him for years recalled that he could remember only a single instance in which Rav Por spoke to him about a mundane matter. It occurred during the height of the war, when the noise of conversation in the beis medrash became unusually heightened. Rav Por gently turned to him and inquired whether something unusual had occurred. When told that the IDF had struck Iran, Rav Por fell briefly silent — the information, by all appearances, was simply incompatible with the spiritual world he inhabited — and then returned immediately to his sefer, as though nothing had been said.

Walking the streets of Bnei Brak, he was invariably absorbed in thought, his eyes carefully guarded, oblivious to his surroundings.

Avreichim who knew him well recount that they would often greet him with “Shalom” only to receive no response — not from indifference, but from the sheer depth of his concentration.
His every movement bespoke composure and deliberateness. Even his modest meal was taken quietly, in a corner of the stairwell, eaten slowly and with remarkable care. Those who spent time in his company uniformly describe the experience as one of serenity, marked always by order and cleanliness.

In the final period of his life, when young men would arrive late at night to learn in the kollel’s beis medrash, Rav Por, rather than ask them to keep the noise down or claim his rightful place, would silently withdraw to the ezras nashim and sleep there on a hard wooden bench. An avreich who regularly arrived at 4:30 in the morning to learn recalls feeling uncomfortable upon realizing he had disturbed Rav Por’s already-sparse sleep by switching on the lights. Rav Por, characteristically, met this with a smile — expressing gratitude, he explained that the light would help rouse him for netz hachama.

His emunah and bitachon were spoken of with awe. Throughout the war and the air-raid sirens, he sat undisturbed in his place and continued learning without fear. One Friday afternoon, when a powerful blast in Bnei Brak blew open the windows of the beis medrash and the room descended into panic, Rav Por — seated with his young son — calmly gestured to the boy to return to his seat, and resumed learning as though nothing had occurred.

From the very onset of the war on Simchas Torah of 5784 until his final day, Rav Por refused to sleep in his bed at home. Instead, he spread a thin blanket on the floor and slept there — even through the cold and freezing winter nights — as an act of identification with the soldiers and captives. Whenever he heard of a fellow Jew’s suffering, he would immediately request the person’s name for davening and continue to inquire after his welfare for days thereafter.

In his final days, a deeply troubled and unstable individual l had been frequenting the kollel and repeatedly provoking Rav Por with contemptuous remarks about the Rishonim and Acharonim. During one such incident — in the days immediately preceding the murder — the man directed open disparagement at the Ramchal, Harav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, zt”l, the 18th-century kabbalist and author of Mesilas Yesharim, while Rav Por was immersed in learning the sefer. Rav Por responded with sharp protest. Fellow avreichim warned him that this individual was unstable and potentially dangerous, but Rav Pur refused to remain silent in the face of bizuy kavod Torah.

Among the many manuscripts found after his death was a letter he had written in his own hand, apparently intended to be posted on the wall of the beis medrash. In it, Rav Por called upon his fellow lomdim to accept upon themselves the study of Mesilas Yesharim as a spiritual protest against the disdainful remarks that had been voiced within the walls of their beis medrash. He never had the opportunity to put it up.

On Wednesday, the 4th of Sivan, during the afternoon break between sedorim, Rav Por sat at his shtender with a Sefer Nach open before him, his beloved son at his side. In one terrible moment, a deranged man attacked and murdered him.

Those present in those dreadful moments described Rav Por as having accepted his fate in silence and with complete acceptance — as was his way in all things — surrendering his pure neshama.

Harav Pur is survived by his wife, who in a moving letter to the avreichim of Kollel Chazon Ish described her husband’s extraordinary devotion to both Torah and his family. When she once expressed to him her deep admiration for his mesiras nefesh for Torah, he demurred: “On the contrary — I am the one who is privileged to be immersed in Torah. You are the one who surrenders yourself in practice, bearing the burden of worldly matters.” He also leaves behind a son.

Beyond manuscripts and kinyonei netzach across all areas of Torah, he left behind virtually no material possessions.

In the wake of the tragedy, the avreichim of the kollel have undertaken to recite Mishnah daily throughout the coming year l’iluy nishmaso, and have divided the entire Shas Bavli among themselves for study and completion. In a direct response to their colleague’s final protest, they have also accepted upon themselves to strengthen their study of mussar — and in particular of Mesilas Yesharim, the sefer whose author’s honor Rav Por gave his life to defend.

Yehi zichro baruch.