Bnei Brak community mourns the death of Rabbi Herzlaya Tzarf, a month after her husband

A deep loss struck Bnei Brak overnight, when news broke after midnight of the death of Rabbi Herzlaya Tzarf, who was 72. She was the wife of Rabbi Moshe Tzarf, former head of the Shir LaMa'alot kollel in Kfar Saba and one of the notable rabbis of Bnei Brak’s Ramat Elchanan neighborhood.

Her death comes about a month after the sudden collapse and death of her husband during a wedding celebration for a grandchild at Keter HaRimon hall in Bnei Brak, at the wedding of the son of their son-in-law, Rabbi Shabtai Levi, to the daughter of Elad Mayor Yehuda Buttbul. Even before that tragedy, she had been ill, and relatives said she suffered greatly after her husband’s death.

In the last 24 hours her condition worsened sharply, and during the night she died on her 72nd birthday, born on 9 Tammuz 5714. She was widely known in Bnei Brak as a dignified figure who, for more than 40 years, served as a source of kindness, ritual guidance and advice for thousands of women and bridal instructors, who saw her as a motherly spiritual guide.

Her funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. from the central Sephardic synagogue at 13 Rabbi Sonnenfeld Street in Ramat Elchanan, Bnei Brak, en route to burial in Elad beside her husband. The family will sit shiva at her home at 93 Rabbi Kahaneman Street in Bnei Brak.