Rabbi Avraham Sternhartz

Avraham Sternhartz, Reb (1862-1955), was the son of Reb Naftali Hertz, grandson of Reb Shachneh and great-grandson of Reb Noson.

His mother was Devorah, the daughter of Reb Nachman, the Tcheriner Rav.

He married Yuta Basya, daughter of Reb Yosef Yonah and Esther Shaindel, granddaughter of Chanah Tsirel. Thus, Reb Avraham Sternhartz was Reb Noson's great-grandson; he was married to Reb Noson's granddaughter, and his father-in-law was Reb Noson's son. As a product of several branches of Reb Noson's family, and at the same time the grandson of the Tcheriner Rav, Reb Avraham had access to all the family traditions and stories about Reb Noson, which formed the basis for his Tovos Zikhronos, one of our main sources for this biography.

Orphaned at a young age, Reb Avraham was raised by his illustrious grandfather, whose influence upon him was unmistakable. Even as a child, Reb Avraham showed great diligence in Torah study, a trait for which his grandfather was known. After the morning prayers he would seclude himself in an attic, where he would study Rebbe Nachman's Likutey Moharan, without a break until he knew the lesson of the day by heart.

After completing the entire Talmud at the age of sixteen, he married and served as a scribe in Tcherin. At the age of nineteen he was accepted as Rav in Kremenchug. When he was twenty-two his grandfather, the Tcheriner Rav, and Reb Avraham Ber (q.v.) appointed him prayer leader at the Rosh HaShanah kibutz, in Uman.

Reb Avraham came to the Holy Land in 1936, and settled in Jerusalem's Old City, where he was recognized as the outstanding Breslover elder of his generation. He continued leading the Rosh HaShanah prayers in Israel, and in 1940 established the kibutz in Meron for Rosh HaShanah.

Exiled from the Old City during the War of Independence in 1948, he was resettled in the Katamon district of Jerusalem together with many other Breslover Chassidim.

Among his disciples were many of the major Breslover leaders of the past decades - Reb Shmuel Horowitz (1905-1973), Reb Gedaliah Aharon Koenig (1921-1980), Reb Zvi Aryeh Lippel (1903-1979), Reb Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld (1922-1978) and Reb Shmuel Shapiro (1913-1989) - as well as those of the present generation: Reb Moshe Burstyn (b.1913) and his son Reb Nachman Burstyn (b.1934), Reb Michel Dorfman (b.1913), and Reb Yaakov Meir Schechter (b.1932).

It was said of Reb Avraham that he was a "living" Likutey Moharan. Just by looking at him one could see that his every action was based on some statement in Rebbe Nachman's teachings. When giving a lesson in Likutey Moharan, he would begin by reciting the text, digress to related material for an hour, two, and even longer, and then pick up again from the exact word where he had left off. What was amazing about this was that it was all done entirely by memory, without Reb Avraham's ever having to look into the written text! And what's more, he did this up until he passed away at the age of ninety-three and a half.

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