The Ger Tzedek of Vilna - ז סיון

Yahrtzeit Yomi #1078!! ז סיון (Thursday) The Ger Tzedek of Vilna Count Valentin Potocki אברהם בן אברהם גר צדק (1700 - 1749) --------------------------------------------------- The inspiring story of אברהם בן אברהם, the גר צדק of Vilna, also known as Count Valentin Potocki, is told in the following audio clip, an excerpt from a shiur that was delivered by Rav Daniel Kalish Shlita, in honor of the occasion of the Ger Tzedek’s 273rd Yahrtzeit, 7 Sivan (2nd day of Shavuos). The “Ger Tzedek of Vilna”, as he came to be known, was initially a renowned Polish nobleman (szlachta) of the Potocki family. He ultimately converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church because he had renounced Catholicism and had become an observant Jew. Avraham Potocki was executed in Vilna on the second day of Shavuos. (One Jew, Leiser Zhiskes, succeeded through bribery in securing some of the ashes of the martyr, which were later buried in the Vilna Jewish cemetery.) Avraham Potocki walked proudly to the execution site, singing a song that was later sung in the Volozhin yeshiva, and subsequently also sung by Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer on Motzei Yom Kippur. Rav Kalish Shlita masterfully shares the harrowing account of the last encounter between the Gaon of Vilna and the Ger Tzedek on that second day of Yom Tov, moments before the latter’s execution. The song - אנחנו בני בריתך - which Rav Kalish references in the shiur was preserved by the renowned Tzaddik, Rav Levi Yitzchok S