Melech Schachter

Rabbi

Melech Schachter
Rabbi; Melech Schachter
Personal
Born	Marcus (Elimelech) Schachter; April 7, 1913; Suceava, Austria-Hungary
Died	February 27, 2007 (aged 93)
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Claire (Chaya) Schachter
Children	Hershel Schachter, Sara Steinberg
Parent(s)	Morris and Mary Schachter
Denomination	Orthodox
Alma mater	Yeshiva University
Position	Rosh yeshiva
Yeshiva	RIETS
Semikhah	RIETS

Last updated May 23, 2023

Melech Schachter (April 7, 1913 - February 27, 2007) was a pulpit rabbi, coordinator of Jewish divorce, and instructor at Yeshiva University for over fifty years.

Life

Education

Schachter was born in Suceava, in the Duchy of Bukovina, several years before the city became part of Romania. He studied at the Viznitz Yeshiva, and arrived in America as a teenager, at the age of fifteen. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Yeshiva College and semikha from Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, he also received a Ph.D. from Dropsie College in Philadelphia. His doctoral dissertation discussed the variant versions of the Mishnah between the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud and was eventually published by Mossad HaRav Kook.

Career

Schachter served many rabbinic roles over his career, including the pulpit rabbi in various communities such as Scranton, Pennsylvania, and The Bronx, New York. He went on to serve as the coordinator of the Rabbinical Council of America's Beth Din for Gittin (Jewish Divorce) and Halitza. In addition to teaching in the RIETS Semikha program, he also taught at Stern College for Women and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work.^[1] In 1997, Rabbi Norman Lamm granted him an honorary degree for his achievements as a Torah scholar and rabbi.^[2] Schachter consulted with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein on a number of issues regarding Gittin and Geirut, such as the use of a polygraph by a husband who is fully paralyzed to commission the writing of a Get ^[3] and relying on a pregnancy test to allow a woman who converts to Judaism to marry immediately.^[4] He was an expert on the spelling of names in a Get and was often consulted by younger rabbis on issues of Halacha ^[5] and gave generously of his time to train them.^[6]

Death

Schachter died at the age of 93 on February 27, 2007, and was survived by his son Hershel Schachter, daughter Sara Steinberg, twelve grandchildren, and thirty-three great grandchildren.^[7] He was originally going to be eulogized in the Harry Fischel Beit Midrash at Yeshiva University, but, due to underestimated attendance, the eulogies were moved to the adjacent Lamport Auditorium and the deceased was brought in, as well.^[8]

Legacy

Schachter would often relate at family gatherings the following story as told by his grandson Rabbi Shay Schachter:

When he was raising his son (Hershel Schachter), my father, in the Bronx, he said he was a poor rabbi of a small shul he didn't have any money, so when it came to my father's Bar Mitzvah they made a small kiddush with pickles and herring after davening . That was the whole Bar Mitzvah. And he said there was a conservative rabbi who was the rabbi of the shul a few blocks away, and he saw a crowd of people standing outside. He asked them what's going on, and they said well Rav Melech Schachter is making a bar mitzvah for his son Hershel. So, he said "Oh, I'm friendly with Reb Melech!" So, he went in to wish Mazel Tov, and he gave my grandfather a bracha - which my grandfather used to repeat at every one of our family simchas - and he said that "I hope someday in the future Hershel won't be known as 'Rav Melech's son.' I hope you'll be known as 'Hershel's father.'"...
My grandfather used to tell us, "You guys don't understand your father is a walking Sefer Torah. It's true, although I was a pretty famous person... it was not long before nobody remembered who I was and I became known as "Hershel's father' There was nothing that gave me more pride... I hope that will come a time when they'll forget me and they'll forget your father and they'll only think about the grandchildren and they'll refer to all of us as the grandparents and the parents of all of you..."^[9]

Published works

HaMishnah HaBavli vehaYerushalmi, hashva'at nuschaoteha, Mossad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem, 1959
Tziyun leNefesh Haya, a responsum regarding commissioning the writing of a Get via telephone, published in Kevod HaRav page 268 and Eretz HaTzvi page 271
PRACTICAL HALAKHAH IN THE SPACE AGE, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 2, No. 1 (FALL 1959), pp. 155–163
"Various Aspects of Adoption," The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society vol. 4, no. 2 (Fall 1982): 93:115
Lectures and articles on YUTorah.org

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References

↑ HARAV HAGAON R. MELECH SCHACHTER ZT”L
↑ Hesped for Rabbi Melech Schachter
↑ Iggerot Moshe, Even HaEzer vol. 4 Siman 98
↑ Highlights of Hilchos Meuberes & Meinekes Chaveiro and Havchana - Even HaEzer Siman 13
↑ Hesped for Rabbi Melech Schachter
↑ Jachter, Chaim (2016). "An Irritating Name in a Get - Rav Melech Schachter's zt"l Resolution of a Tense Situation". Kol Torah. Halacha. Torah Academy of Bergen County. 26. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
↑ Paid Notice: Deaths SCHACHTER, RABBI MELECH
↑ Bereishis 5776
↑ Goldberg, Efrem (27 May 2020). "Behind the Bima (Episode #9 5.27.20) Special Guest: R' Shay Schachter". YouTube. Boca Raton Synagogue. Retrieved 22 December 2020.

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