Rabbi Ephraim Yolles: Difference between revisions

Reb Efraim Eliezer HaCohen Yolles (written in [[Yiddish]] as Yolles) (5 Shevat 1890 - 25 Cheshvan 1988) was the Gaavad of Sambor and Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox community in Philadelphia.

In his later years, he was known as the Gaavad of Sambor or the Admor of Sambor, and served as honorary president of Agudas HaRabbonim of the United States and Canada. The leadership of Sambor Chassidus is continued by his grandson, Reb Uri Gladtzelter.

After the Frierdiker Rebbe came to the United States, Reb Yolles asked him to study Kabbalah and Chassidus with him, and he directed him to his son-in-law, the Rebbe. After the Frierdiker Rebbe's passing in 1950, he urged his son-in-law the Rebbe to accept the nesius, and since then would regularly attend his farbrengens. He was close to the Rebbe and accepted him as his personal Rebbe, visiting him several times a year. From the Igros Kodesh series, it's evident that hundreds of Torah letters were exchanged between them, both in nigleh and Kabbalah. When Reb Yolles was asked a question about science and Torah in astronomy (a contradiction between the sun's size as written in Jewish sources versus its scientific size), he referred the question to the Rebbe. His level of hiskashrus and bitul to the Rebbe was well-known.