Rabbi Meir Chadash (alternatively transliterated as Meir Chodosh) [1] (1898-1989) [2] was the mashgiach of the Hebron Yeshiva and a leading mussar disseminator in the 20th century. [3]
Chadash was a talmid muvhak (primary student) of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (often referred to as the "Alter (elder) of Slabodka"). [4] His strength was described as "adaptation and modification" of the Alter's teachings to "the nascent yeshiva world of Eretz Yisroel" both before and especially "after the war". [5]
Chadash was born 27 Shvat 5658 (February 19, 1898) to Ben Tzion and Machla Chadash, who were living at the time in Paritch, (jewish "Lithuania", today Belarus). Two older siblings were his brother Dovid and his sister Gronia. [4] He married Tzivia Leah Hutner, a daughter of Rav Naftali Menachem Hutner, in 1927. At age ten he was sent to a yeshiva in Shklov, Belarus. Somewhat before reaching bar mitzvah his cousin took him to Slabodka. [4]
When military draft exemptions for yeshiva students were cancelled in Lithuania, the Alter sent a group to found what became the Hebron Yeshiva. Chadash was in "the final group of students" to move what was left of their yeshiva. [4]
His approach was described as "innovative teachings" based on "never said anything that he had not heard from" yet, when facing something new, to "say what his rebbe would have said" because he would "work out how his rebbe would have approached" the situation. [5] By the time of the Alter's death, Meir had advanced to be described as "the Alter's close disciple and confidant." Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna later said it was like "the closeness of Yehoshua bin Nun to Moshe Rabbenu." [5]
An explanation he gave for why he asked all visitors to leave his hospital room when a certain medical staff member entered was: "difficulty locating my veins. I didn't want the visitors to see him fumbling, because he might have been embarrassed. That is why I asked them to leave." [4]
Yitzchak Hutner, also known as Isaac Hutner, was an American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean).
Nosson Tzvi Finkel was an influential Lithuanian Jewish leader of Orthodox Judaism in Eastern Europe and founder of the Slabodka yeshiva, in the town of Sloboda Vilyampolskaya. He is also known by the Yiddish appellation der Alter and as the Alter of Slabodka. Many of his pupils were to become major leaders of Orthodox Judaism in the USA and Israel.
Moshe Mordechai Epstein was rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century. He is also one of the founders of the city of Hadera.
Hebron Yeshiva, also known as Yeshivas Hevron, or Knesses Yisroel, is a yeshiva. It originated in 1924 when the roshei yeshiva (deans) and 150 students of the Slabodka Yeshiva, known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas", relocated to Hebron.
Ner Israel Rabbinical College, also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva in Pikesville, Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, dean of the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania. Rabbi Aharon Feldman, a disciple of Rabbi Ruderman and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America, became its head in 2001.
Rosh yeshiva is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and the Torah, and halakha.
A mashgiach ruchani, sometimes mashgiach for short, is a spiritual supervisor or guide. They are usually a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva and is responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students' lives.
Avigdor HaKohen Miller was an American Haredi rabbi, author, and lecturer.
Yechezkel Sarna (1890–1969) was a disciple of Nosson Tzvi Finkel, spiritual mentor of the Slabodka yeshiva. He was sent by Finkel to move the yeshiva from Europe to Hebron in 1925, and following the 1929 Hebron massacre, to Jerusalem. In 1934, he became rosh yeshiva (dean).
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon also known as Reb Laizer Telzer, served as the rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
Rabbi Naftoli Trop was a renowned Talmudist and Talmid Chacham. He served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Radun, Poland.
Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, known as Reb Chatzkel,, was the mashgiach ruchani of the Mir Yeshiva, in Mir, Belarus and during the yeshiva's escape to Lithuania and on to Shanghai due to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in World War II. He was a leader of several yeshivas in Europe, the United States, and Israel.
The Mir Yeshiva, commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Lithuanian yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire. After relocating a number of times during World War II, it has evolved into three yeshivas: one in Jerusalem and two in Brooklyn, New York: the Mir Yeshiva, and Bais Hatalmud.
Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael was a yeshiva located in the town of Vilijampolės Slabada in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. It operated from the late 19th century until World War II.
Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon is a Lithuanian-style Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem. The yeshiva was initially established in 1953 in Los Angeles, California, by Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, who named it in memory of his father, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, rosh yeshiva in Baranowicz, who was murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. The yeshiva operated in Los Angeles from 1953 to 1977, when it was sold to the Chabad movement. After Wasserman immigrated to Jerusalem, he established another Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood in 1979. A second branch was opened in the Romema neighborhood in 1993. Ohr Elchonon enrolls hundreds of boys in yeshiva ketana and yeshiva gedolah, and close to 100 married men in its kollel. Additional yeshiva ketana branches have been established in the Israeli cities of Modiin Illit, Rishon Letzion, and Tiberias.
The Lomza Yeshiva was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Łomża, Poland, founded by Rabbi Eliezer Bentzion Shulevitz in 1883. Rabbi Yechiel Mordechai Gordon served as the yeshiva's rosh yeshiva for many years, and Rabbi Moshe Rosenstain served as the mashgiach. A branch of the yeshiva was established in Petach Tikvah, Palestine in 1926, where Rabbi Reuven Katz served as co-rosh yeshiva alongside Rabbi Gordon.
Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva, founded in Slabodka on the outskirts of Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1897. The yeshiva later moved to Kamyenyets, then part of Poland, and currently in Belarus, and is therefore often referred to as the Kaminetz Yeshiva or simply Kaminetz. The yeshiva was famously led by Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
Rabbi Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch was a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Telshe (Telšiai), Lithuania.
Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Sher was the rosh yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania and Bnei Brak. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka.
Some people teach Mussar. Few people are Mussar. Such a person was ...