By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Tuvia Bloy, one of the eldest Chabad rabbis and thinkers in Israel, passed away on Wednesday, 23 Tammuz 5786.

He was 90.

He was born on 16 Iyar 5696 (1936) to Rabbi Boruch Yehuda Bloy, one of the leaders of Poalei Agudas Yisrael (PAGI) in Jerusalem. He was the grandson of Rabbi Moshe Bloy, chairman of Agudas Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael.

In his youth, Rabbi Bloy became close to the Belz and Gur Chassidic courts and regularly attended the tish of the Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisrael, despite the risks involved in traveling there.

In 1953, he was introduced to Chabad through Rabbi Avraham Leib Klein, head of the Hasmidim Yeshivah where he studied. Rabbi Klein, himself a Chabad chassid, also brought Rabbi Bloy’s brothers, Rabbi Yosef Bloy and Rabbi Amram Bloy, closer to Chabad.
Rabbi Bloy was among those who helped guide Chabad’s evening yeshivos in Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, established under the initiative and leadership of Rabbi Shmuel Elazar Halperin, rosh yeshivah of Toras Emes in Jerusalem.

He married Chana Frumet Rosenberg, daughter of Rabbi Chaim Uri Rosenberg, on 20 Kislev 5715 (1954).

Following his marriage, he worked closely with Rabbi Shmuel Menachem Mendel Schneerson, director of Colel Chabad, to spread the Rebbe’s teachings among Jerusalem’s charedi community through Tzeirei Agudas Chabad of Jerusalem. After internal disputes arose within the organization in 1959, the Rebbe instructed Rabbi Azriel Zev Slonim to dissolve the existing leadership and reestablish it with a new administration. Rabbi Bloy was appointed to the new executive alongside Rabbi Yehoshafat Alpert and Rabbi Tzvi Eisenbach, serving in that role for approximately thirty years.

In 1975, he was appointed principal of the Beis Chana girls’ high school in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Bloy began writing for the Chabad journal in 1959. Following the passing of his close friend Rabbi Uriel Zimmer, he continued Zimmer’s translation of Sefer HaZichronos and produced numerous additional translations.

In 1970, he wrote an article explaining the Rebbe’s methodology in Rashi commentary. The Rebbe’s secretariat later instructed him to expand the subject into a book. The result was Klalei Rashi, published in 1980. A second edition followed in 1991, and a greatly expanded third edition was published in 2018 with the assistance of his grandsons, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Bloy and Rabbi Moshe Levi Yitzchak Laufer.

In the summer of 1980, Rabbi Bloy joined the editorial staff of Kfar Chabad magazine, where he began publishing a regular column titled “Da Mah SheTashiv” (“Know What to Answer”), responding to ideological critiques originating in certain circles in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Binyomin Klein, one of the Rebbe’s secretaries, later recalled that the Rebbe once described Bloy’s essays as “ringing articles,” a reference to their forceful and impactful style.

He remained with Kfar Chabad until 1990. Afterward, he published less frequently in Chabad periodicals, except for Pardes Chabad, which he edited from 1997 through 2007.

With the establishment of the Levi Yitzchak Institute, Rabbi Bloy undertook the translation of the Rebbe’s Likkutei Sichos from Yiddish into Hebrew.

Over the years, Rabbi Bloy also wrote under several pen names, including “A. Choker” (“A. Researcher”) and “T. Me’aleil,” which he used in both the Chabad journal and Kfar Chabad magazine.

Rabbi Bloy passed away during the shloshim, the thirty-day mourning period following the passing of his wife.

He is survived by his children: Mrs. Leah Laufer of Ashdod, Rabbi Peretz Uriel Bloy, Mrs. Raizel Halperin of Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Yaakov Meir Bloy of Jerusalem, and Mrs. Shaina Tzipora Wilhelm of Nachlas Har Chabad, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Baruch Dayan Haemes.