Unpublished Letter Reveals Late Warning by Bnei Brak Scholar Murdered in Beit Midrash

The yeshiva community in Bnei Brak is still reeling from the killing of Rabbi Yishai Por, a young scholar at the Chazon Ish kollel, who was murdered in cold blood in the beit midrash on the eve of Shavuot. This week, a memorial essay published in Kovetz Gilyonot disclosed a disturbing account from his study partners, describing both his extraordinary devotion to Torah and the spiritual background to the attack.

According to the testimony, the killer, Guy Achtlinger, repeatedly taunted Por. Out of reverence for earlier Torah sages, Por had already written a letter in his own hand intended to be posted in the study hall as a protest against the insults aimed at Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, author of Mesilat Yesharim. He never managed to hang it up before he was killed.

The memorial account portrays Por as entirely absorbed in Torah, without a mobile phone, avoiding idle talk, and living with unusual order and cleanliness. During the war, he remained at his regular seat and studied without fear, even after a blast opened the beit midrash windows in Bnei Brak. He was also said to identify deeply with the suffering of Israel, sleeping on a thin blanket on the floor since the start of the war on Simchat Torah 5784 in solidarity with soldiers and hostages.

On Wednesday, 4 Sivan, during the afternoon break between study sessions, Por was sitting at his stand with a book of Nach open and his young son beside him when he was suddenly attacked and killed. Witnesses said he accepted the divine judgment in silence and with love. His widow later wrote to the kollel that he was devoted to his family and Torah, while he told her that she was the one truly sacrificing for the household. In response to his death, the kollel announced daily Mishnah study for the coming year, a division of the entire Babylonian Talmud among the members, and renewed study of mussar, especially Mesilat Yesharim.