It is with great sadness that 5TC informs the community of the petira of HaGaon Hagadol R’ Nota Greenblatt Zt”l of Memphis, Tennessee. He was 96-years-old.
Rav Greenblatt was born in 1925 in Washington, DC. In 1928, his parents moved to Ellenville, NY, where his father, Rav Yitzchok, a native of Brisk, became the rov of the shul.
R’ Nota Zt”l studied in Boston for several years in a short-lived yeshivah run by Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. His chavrusa was the Brisker Rav’s future son-in-law Rav Michel Feinstein in 1946. He then learned for two years in Chevron and was a chavrusah of Rav Aharon Cohen, later rosh yeshiva of Chevron.
R’ Nota got married and began his first “Shteller” as an assistant Rav in the year 1949, in Memphis, Tennessee. During those days his father R’ Yitzchak Zt’l was ill and he’d travel back and forth from NY to Memphis to visit him.
R’ Nota was known as one of the closest Talmidim of Hagaon Hagadol R’ Moshe Feinstein Zt’l.
Later as a teenager in Israel in the postwar years, he had the opportunity to meet Rav Yitzchak Zev (Velvel) Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav, on several occasions in his home.
R’ Nota was one of the Gedolei Hador of America for decades, who answered rare shailos from all around the world. He was known as an expert in Hilchos Gittin.
The levayah will be, Sunday, May 1st 2:00 pm Eastern Time in New York at Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Shiva details to follow.
הַמָּקוֹם יְנַחֵם אֶתְכֶם בְּתוֹךְ שְׁאָר אֲבֵלֵי צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם
He was a Rav in Memphis, but he traveled throughout the country to help women secure gittin.
He was renowned for his advocacy in this area.
I once heard him give a shiur and he answered his cell phone right in the middle.
“Someone might need help with a get,” he explained.
— David/Dovid Bashevkin (@DBashIdeas) April 29, 2022
My chavrusa in Yeshiva was from Memphis and through him I heard and saw a lot of amazing stories from Rav Nota.
Here’s a thread of some Rav Nota stories: https://t.co/73QfjDbOLu
— David/Dovid Bashevkin (@DBashIdeas) April 29, 2022
He was really a giant.
Not *despite* living in a smaller Jewish town but *because* he lived in a smaller Jewish town.
He always remained tethered to small town Jewry, which is why he was always such a giant in Torah, empathy, responsibility and sensitivity.
יהי זכרו ברוך
— David/Dovid Bashevkin (@DBashIdeas) April 29, 2022
See a several short clips of R’ Nota zt’l from several years ago on Jewish History Soundbites:
Rav Nota Greenblatt tells us how 90 years ago, the great Rav Dovid Leibowitz saw something in American Yeshiva bochurim that nobody else could have predicted.
On his Yahrtzeit, it’s important that we remember his tremendous contribution to the building of Torah in America. pic.twitter.com/RgnnWHhmlq
— Jewish History Soundbites (@JSoundbites) December 13, 2019
At the Kever of his Rebbi, Rav Nota Greenblatt tells us what Rav Boruch Ber advised @TorahVodaath when they asked him who to hire as their first Rosh Yeshiva: pic.twitter.com/EP21ap3Rye
— Jewish History Soundbites (@JSoundbites) December 13, 2019
