B''H

Thoughts about HaRav Chanan Velvel Simcha ben Bryna, may he have an elevation of the soul.

I just heard that Chanan Feld has past out of this world. He had seemed sick before I left for Israel, and I guess his condition just deteriorated as the weeks past. He was my mother’s age, which is too young to leave a wife and three children. Hash-m works in mysterious ways sometimes.

My first memory of him was a my brother’s bris 14 years ago. He was the mohel. He did most of the brisim in the Bay Area for the past 25 years. He probably would have done mine too. I remember my mother was crying because she was so happy that her 2nd son would be circumcised. I was only 8 years old, but that memory was a big reason for my wanting to have my own bris done when I was twelve, before I became bar mitzvah.

Chanan also co-founded that Berkeley Beis Midrash, which is now a small but thriving community that is now suffering greatly from losing him but will, im yiratz Hash-m, continue to be place of torah and tfilah. He taught there every week until he became too ill, and he and his wife brought countless yidn back to yiddishkeit. He was one of the people that guided me to be where I am now, at this great little Yehsiva in Yerushalaim.

I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that Chanan used to be a professional soccer player. He became frum as an adult, m’karev by Rabbi Ferris. He went from not even knowing aleph beis to one of Nor Cal’s most beloved rabbis. He’s even got his own spot in the new Jewish museum.

He’s going to be buried here in eretz hakodesh. I’m sad that I can’t be with our community in Berkeley right now, but my roommate, who knew him also, and I are going to hold a little farbringen in his honor, im yiratz Hsh-m.

Take care all, and may there be only revealed good in your lives.

Yoel David