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A name made great is a name destroyed. He who does not increase his knowledge decreases it Hillel the Elder |
Elazar Menachem Man Shach also spelt Eliezer Schach, (January 1, 1899 O.S. – November 2, 2001) was a leading Lithuanian-born and educated Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. He also served as one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak along with Rabbis Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky. He founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews in the Israeli Knesset, many of whom considered him to be the greatest scholar of the generation and used the honorific Maran ("[our] master") when referring to him.
He was recognized as a Talmudic scholar par excellence by both Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (the Brisker Rav) and Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer (his wife's uncle) in their approbations to his Avi Ezri, a commentary on the Mishneh Torah. Soloveitchik made efforts to help with the distribution of the (first edition of the) Avi Ezri among Torah scholars.
Shach served as head of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, chairman of Chinuch Atzmai and Va'ad HaYeshivos, as well as the honorary president of hundreds of yeshivos and organizations worldwide.
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Shach was born in Wabolninkas (Vabalninkas, pronounced Vaboilnik in Yiddish), a rural village in northern Lithuania to Rabbi Ezriel and Batsheva Shach. The Shach family had been merchants for generations, but Batsheva's family, the Levitans, were religious scholars who served various Lithuanian communities. Batsheva's brother, Rabbi Osher Nisan Levitan, later became an important figure in the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. Elazar was a child prodigy, and was sent to study in the Ponevezh yeshiva at age seven.
When World War I began in 1914, many of the Slabodka yeshiva students were dispersed across Europe. Shach initially returned to his family but then began traveling across Lithuania from town to town, sleeping and eating wherever he could while continuing to study Torah. After the war Shach rejoined Meltzer and his son-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, in Kletsk, Poland. When Meltzer returned to Slutsk, Shach followed him (the Slutsk yeshiva later gained fame as the Lakewood yeshiva in America).
Meltzer became both a father figure and patron to the young Shach, even arranging his marriage with his niece, Guttel, in 1923. Shach received rabbinical ordination from Meltzer, and from 1927 to 1932 taught in the Kletsk yeshiva. After the passing of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, head of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski sent the yeshivah's administrators a letter, recommending Shach for the position. After delivering a discourse at the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, Shach traveled to Vilna to consult with Grodzinski about the wisdom of taking on the new position, and upon hearing the various aspects of the question, Grodzinski advised Shach to turn down the offer. Shach then taught Talmud at the Novardok yeshiva. In 1936 he became rosh yeshiva at the Karlin yeshiva in Luninets.
Shortly before the start of World War II and the Holocaust, several yeshivas began considering evacuating their rabbis, students and families. Kotler eventually left for America, traveling across Siberia and arriving in the United States during the war. In 1939 Shach first went to Vilna, where he stayed with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Later that year both Shach's mother and his eldest daughter fell ill and died. In early 1940 the Shach family decided to leave Lithuania. Shach's maternal uncle, Rabbi Aron Levitan, had helped Kotler get emigration visas, but Shach decided instead to go to Palestine, where Meltzer was serving as Rosh Yeshiva at Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, (Shach would later serve as the Rosh Yeshiva there as well). His uncle helped him and his family get immigration certificates and took them in after they arrived at his doorstep, destitute.
Several years after the re-establishment of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, he was asked to be one of its deans. He served in that capacity until his passing. At this yeshiva, Shach taught thousands of students, some of whom eventually assumed prominent positions as rosh yeshivas and rabbis in both Israel and abroad.
Shach, was a revered spiritual mentor of more than 100,000 rigorously Orthodox Jews, and was credited by many with promoting the concept of the "society of learners" in the post-war Haredi world. With his strong encouragement, the phenomenon of Haredi men studying in yeshivas and kollels full-time gained popularity. Although this type of setup had been comparatively rare in Europe before World War II, it became the norm in some Haredi communities in Israel and the United States, with some financial backing from Haredi communities, as well as subsidies to young families with many children from the Israeli government. At the same time, however, Shach said on many occasions that the Jewish people consists of both Torah scholars and balabatim (lay people) who support Torah learning. “Everyone is required to serve Hashem,” he said, “but not everyone can do so by means of learning all day.” Shach is also quoted as saying that although the yeshivas are the heart of the Jewish people, it is the ba'alei teshuvah who will be the one's to bring Mashiach. Shach's position as magid shiur in the Novardok yeshiva in Jerusalem came about as a result of the recommendation of the Chazon Ish to one of the Yeshiva's founders, Rabbi Bentzion Brook. Whenever it would come to signing a public proclamation or letter on behalf of Klal Yisrael (the Jewish community), the Steipler insisted that Shach's signature appear before his. It was not uncommon for the Steipler to come to Shach unannounced in order to consult with him on a matter of vital concern for the Jewish people.
Shach taught that events like the holocaust occurred whenever the sins of the Jewish people accumulated, and they needed to be punished. He said that "God kept count of each and every sin, in a running count over hundreds of years, until the count amounted to six million Jews, and that is how the holocaust occurred. So must a Jew believe, and if a Jew does not completely believe this, he is a heretic, and if we do not accept this as a punishment then it is as if we don't believe in The Holy One, Blessed be He..."
Shach held that any secular education, at any level whatsoever, including high-school, was absolutely forbidden by the Torah. He wrote that any secular studies were banned by the sages of the talmud, and that specially the study of psychology and history is pure heresy. He also wrote that learning a trade before it became an immediate need, is forbidden.
When Shach was asked about opening a yeshiva exclusively for gifted boys, he said that it is impossible to know beforehand who will grow in Torah knowledge and who will not, and that all boys should therefore be given equal opportunities.
For Shach, battling secularism and Zionism was not enough. During the years of his leadership, he also waged bitter wars against anybody he suspected of deviation from the classic Haredi path.
Shach was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Israel beginning the 1970s, having been appointed to that body by the Chazon Ish. Shach had been instrumental in the formation of the Sephardi Shas party, which is now under the sole spiritual leadership of his one-time ally, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Shas ran for the 11th Knesset in 1984, and Shach called upon his "Lithuanian" followers to vote for it in the polls, a move that many saw as key political and religious move in Shach's split with the Hasidic-controlled Agudat Israel. While initially Shas was largely under the aegis of Shach, Yosef gradually exerted control over the party, culminating in Shas' decision to support the Labor party in the 13th Knesset in 1992, something both Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel opposed.
On the eve of the November 1988 election, Shach officially broke away from Agudat Israel in protest at Hamodia publishing, as paid advertisements, a series of articles based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Shach criticized Schneerson for his presumed messianic aspirations. Shach wanted the Aguda party to oppose Lubavitch, however all but one (Belz) of the Hasidic sects within the party refused to back him. Shach and his followers then formed the Degel HaTorah ("Flag of Torah") party to represent the non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredim. Schneerson mobilized his followers to support the Agudat Israel party. While Aguda secured nearly three times the amount of votes it had in 1984, and increased its Knesset representation from two seats to five, Degel HaTorah won only two seats. After the bitter contest in the 1988 elections, Degel HaTorah agreed to work together with Agudat Israel and combine forces in the 1992 elections, under the name of United Torah Judaism, an agreement which has continued to the present.
Around 1995 Shach's political activity diminished, following deterioration in his health, before later ceasing altogether. Since then, the two main leaders of the Degel HaTorah party have been Rabbis Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and Aharon Leib Shteinman.
Shach was deeply opposed to Zionism, both secular and religious. He was fiercely dismissive of secular Israelis and their culture. For example, during a 1990 speech he lambasted kibbutzniks as "breeders of rabbits and pigs" who did not "know what Yom Kippur is". In the same speech he said that the Labor Party had cut themselves off from their Jewish past and wished to "seek a new Torah". Shach never seemed concerned over the discord his harsh statements might cause, saying that "There is no need to worry about machlokes [dispute]...one is obligated to be a baal-machlokes [disputant]. It is no feat to be in agreement with everybody!" Shach was also critical of democracy, once referring to it as a "cancer", adding that "only the sacred Torah is the true democracy." Shach supported the withdrawal from land under Israeli control, basing it upon the Halakhic principle of Pikuach Nefesh ("[the] saving [of a] life"), in which the preservation of lives takes precedence over nearly all other obligations in the Torah, including those pertaining to the sanctity of land. He also criticized Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (at that time mainly settled by secular and Religious Zionist Jews) as "a blatant attempt to provoke the international community", and called on Haredim to avoid moving to such communities.
Approximately 200,000 people attended Shach's funeral, and after his death, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon noted appreciation for his work, saying "There is no doubt that we have lost an important person who made his mark over many years. I express condolences on behalf of all of us; we share in the mourning and sorrow of his family and the haredi community."
Shach launched a number of public attacks against the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from the 1970s through Schneerson's death in 1994. He accused Schneerson's followers of false Messianism, and Schneerson of fomenting a cult of crypto-messianism around himself. He objected to Schneerson's call for "demanding" the Messiah's appearance. When some of Schneerson's followers proclaimed him the Messiah, Shach called for a complete boycott of Chabad, its institutions and projects by its constituents. In 1988 Shach explicitly denounced Schneerson as a meshiach sheker (false messiah). Shach also compared Chabad and Schneerson to the followers of the 17th century false messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
Pointing to a statement by Schneerson that a rebbe is "the Essence and Being [of God] clothed a body", Shach described this as nothing short of idolatry. His followers refused to eat meat slaughtered by Lubavitch shochetim or to recognize Chabad Hasidim as adherents of authentic Judaism. Shach once described Schneerson as "the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy.".
In addition to Shach's objections to certain Chabad members proclaiming Schneerson to be the Messiah, he also argued against the Chabad position on many other issues. Chabad strongly opposed both peace talks with the Palestinians and relinquishing territory to them under any circumstances, while Shach supported the land-for-peace approach. During the 1988 elections, Schneerson endorsed Agudat Yisrael over Shach's newly-formed Degel HaTorah party, and instructed Israeli Chabad to campaign for it. Shach is quoted as saying: "I have heard claims made in my name that at a gathering connected with the upcoming elections, I said the people of Chabad are not Jews. I publicly announce that in malice do they distort my words! I spoke in Hebrew, and this is what I said: what they [Chabad] do is not the "Jewish" way. They distorted my words on purpose to damage and libel me for they think that from this they will derive some benefit and gather more votes in these elections. And when they claimed that I called them the children of an impure woman, I testify before heaven and earth that I never said words such as these but only criticized their effort to build a ritual bath that was not in line with the standards of the Chazon Ish, may the memory of this righteous man be a blessing... I do not forgive anyone who fabricates words on his own and then says that I said them. And with this I request that each and every one will pass these words to his fellow."
In addition to his criticism of Schneerson, Shach was critical of the following rabbis:
Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik
In a lengthy attack on Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Shach accused him of writing "things that are forbidden to hear" as well as "...endangering the survival of Torah-true Judaism by indoctrinating the masses with actual words of heresy".
The Gerer Rebbe
Shach resigned from the Council of Torah Greats following tensions between him and the Gerer Rebbe, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter. In the Eleventh Knesset elections, Shach had already told his supporters to vote for Shas instead of Agudat Israel. Some perceive the schism as the reemergence of the dissent between Hassidim and Mitnagdim, as Shach represents the Lithuanian Torah world while the Gerer Rebbe is among the most important Hassidic rebbes and represents the most significant Hassidic sect in Agudat Israel. However, it is grossly inaccurate to base the entire conflict on a renewal of the historic dispute between Hassidim and Mitnagdim which began in the latter half of the eighteenth century
Rav Adin Steinsaltz
Rav Adin Steinsaltz (Even-Yisrael), was likewise accused of heresy by Shach, who, in a letter written September 10, 1988, wrote that "…and similarly all his other works contain heresy. It is forbidden to debate with Steinsaltz, because, as a heretic, all the debates will only cause him to degenerate more. He is not a genuine person (ein tocho ke-baro) and everyone is obliged to distance themselves from him. This is the duty of the hour (mitzvah be-sha’atah). It will generate merit for the forthcoming Day of Judgement." In the summer of 1989, a group of rabbis including Shach placed a ban on all of Steinsaltz's works.
He was also critical of Rabbi Yehuda (Leo) Levi.
The Modern Orthodox and Yeshiva University
Shach wrote that YU type institutions are an entirely negative phenomenon posing a threat to the very endurance of authentic Judaism. When opposing having such an institution in Israel, Shach said that these modern conceptions were "an absolute disaster, causing the destruction of our Holy Torah. Even the so-called ‘Touro College’ in the USA is a terrible disaster, a 'churban ha-das' (destruction of the Jewish religion)..."
Shach further writes that the success of those people who were able to achieve greatness in Torah despite their involvement in secular studies are "ma'aseh satan" (the work of the satanic forces) for the existence of such role models will entice others to follow suit, only to be doomed
In a conversation that he had with an American rabbi in the 1980s, Shach stated, "The Americans think that I am too controversial and divisive. But in a time when no one else is willing to speak up on behalf of our true tradition, I feel myself impelled to do so."
Shach wrote that he was not at all opposed to chassidim and chassidus (including Chassidus Chabad from the previous generations); he said he recognized them as "yera'im" and "shlaymim" (God-fearing and wholesome) and full of Torah and Mitzvos and fear of heaven.
Regarding his opposition to the present day Chabad movement, someone mentioned to Shach that "after 120 years, when you go to Heaven, you will merit a warm handshake from the Vilna Gaon." Shach responded, "The Vilna Gaon will shake my hand!? The Baal HaTanya will be the one to shake my hand!"
In 1982, the honor and standing of Rabbi Shach were challenged by various segments of the Orthodox press. A group of leading Rabbis (Yaakov Kamenetsky, Shimon Schwab, Mordechai Gifter, Shneur Kotler, Avraham Yaakov Pam, Aharon Schechter, Henoch Leibowitz, Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, and Elya Svei) decided that a public protest for the honor of Shach was necessary. One protest was held at Kaminetz Yeshiva in New York, and another at Ner Yisrael in Baltimore.
Shach had three children, all born in Kletsk in the 1920s: Miriam Raisel, Devorah, and Ephraim. Miriam Raisel died as a teenager in 1939 of pneumonia. Devorah married Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, and had 9 children. Ephraim was unsatisfied with the Haredi lifestyle and eventually joined the Religious Zionist camp. He served in the Israel Defense Forces, received a doctorate in history and philosophy, and worked as a supervisor for the Israel Ministry of Education. Ephraim married Tamara Yarlicht-Kowalsky and had 2 children. He passed away October 17, 2011, at the age of 81.
His wife, Guttel Schach died in 1969 from complications relating to diabetes.
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