It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Mendel Farber zt”l, noted rebbi and mashpiah at Shapell’s/Darche Noam and Midreshet Rachel v’Chaya, and father-in-law of Chevron rosh yeshiva Rav Dovid Cohen.
Rav Farber was raised in Brooklyn N.Y. and attended Yeshiva Toras Chaim of East New York.
When he was thirteen and a half, he was brought to Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin and met the man who would shape his life and was surely the most important influence on Rav Farber and his family: the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yitzchok Hutner.  Rav Farber would later call it “the most important day in my life.”
At the time, Rav Farber also joined the Bnei Akiva, called Shomer Hadati at the time. As he grew in his learning and became a ben Torah, Bnei Akiva became less important to him, but the love for Eretz Yisroel kept growing within him. His involvement in Bnei Akiva, surprisingly, brought him close to Rav Hutner, who did not attempt to get him to leave Bnei Akiva; he felt that the boys had a very positive influence within the organization, but nonetheless watched them carefully. Rav Farber later met his wife at Bnei Akiva.
In high school, it was under the tutelage of Rav Yaakov Moshe Shurkin that his serious learning began. He introduced Rav Farber to the fascinating, intricate reasoning and logic of Gemara. Rav Farber finished high school and got his parents to agree to delay college for a year so that he could devote his full time to learning.
Rav Farber learned for five years after his wedding in the kollel of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin.  Afterwards, he went into the family business. Even after he went into finance and real estate, he continued to have a seder every day in the yeshiva.
His wife was born in Eretz Yisrael. Rav Farber’s father-in-law learned under Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook.
After his marriage, Rav Farber began spending less time in business and more in learning. Rav Farber and his wife bought an apartment in Eretz Yisroel in 1969, and during the summer of 1970 they took their seven children and relcoated to Eretz Yisrael. When they first arrived, Rav Farber established a business that took up his mornings and then went to yeshiva. He taught at Yeshiva Dvar Yerushalayim from the early seventies until the early nineties.
Rav Farber had become partners with an old high school mate, Rav Yaacov Yellin, who was associated with Yeshiva Darche Noam and kept telling him about a Rav Karlinsky and Rav Hirshfeld who had a yeshiva similar to Dvar Yerushalayim. As soon as Rav Farber met Rav Karlinsky, he needed no further urging. He accepted the opportunity to teach at Darche Noam, where he had a colossal hashpaah on so many students.
Rav Farber leaves behind an outstanding family of children and grandchildren following in his ways.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com Israel}