Chaim Shmuelevitz
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Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz (1902–1978) was a Rosh Yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem. He was known as Reb Chaim Stutchiner and taught, guided, and inspired thousands of disciples throughout his lifetime, by word and deed, with legendary diligence and intensity in Torah study.
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[edit] Early Years
Rabbi Chaim was born in Stutchin, Poland, on the last night of Rosh Hashanah 1902 to Refael Alter Shmuelevitz and his wife, Ettel, the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, known as the "Alter of Novardok". The Sandek at his circumcision was Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer ("Reb Itzel Peterburger"), a Torah and Mussar luminary of the time, one of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter's greatest disciples.
In 1920, when Chaim was 17, both his parents died within a very short time, orphaning him, a brother, and two sisters.
Just a short time later at the age of 18, he was invited by the world famous Gaon, Rabbi Shimon Shkop to give the third level lecture in the preparatory academy in Grodno. Many of his students of those years later became great Torah leaders, and his own four years in Grodno with Rabbi Shkop had a profound influence on his approach to Talmudic analysis.
At the age of 22, he headed a group of students who transferred from Grodno to Mir. In 1929 Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva, took him as a son-in-law, and a scant few years later, at the relatively young age of 31, Rabbi Shmuelevitz was appointed as a Rosh Yeshivah, delivering regular lectures. The hallmark of his lectures was depth combined with a fabulous breadth; it was not uncommon for him to cite 20 or 30 different sources from far-flung corners of the Talmud and its commentaries during a single lecture.
[edit] World War
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Mir yeshiva was forced into exile. The students and faculty fled from Mir to Vilna, where they stayed for about two months, after which they moved to Keidan, where they managed to set up the yeshiva once more in 1940. After being ordered out of Keidan seven months later by the Lithuanian Communist authorities, the yeshiva divided into four groups, each numbering between eighty and one hundred students.
Next, the yeshiva stayed in Kobe, Japan, for about six months, and then relocated to Shanghai for the next five years - although living conditions were extremely difficult, the yeshiva prospered. As Rabbi Finkel had gone to Palestine to obtain visas for the yeshiva and was forced to remain there, Rabbi Shmuelevitz and the Mashgiach Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein assumed responsibility and day-to-day running of the Yeshiva.
[edit] Shanghai
Somehow, Rabbi Shmuelevitz became responsible for the financial needs of all Jewish learning institutions in the city, not just his own. These included contingents of the famed Yeshivas of Kamenetz, Kletzk, Lubavitch, and Lublin. This was despite the fact that exchanging foreign currency in Shanghai was fraught with danger and Rabbi Shmuelevitz lived with a perpetual fear of being apprehended by the authorities.
A short while after arriving in Shanghai, Rabbi Shmuelevitz received American visas for himself and his family. He refused them, saying that he would leave only when all the students had received their visas. This ultimately meant staying in Shanghai for 5 and a half years.
[edit] Move to Jerusalem
In 1947 the yeshivah moved again - as always, as a single unit - this time, to the United States, where Rabbi Shmuelevitz spent six months before rejoining his father-in-law, Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, in the Mirrer Yeshivah in Jerusalem. For the next 32 years, until his passing in 1978, he remained in Mir-Jerusalem, disseminating his unique wisdom and insight to thousands of disciples.
He became active in Agudath Israel in Israel, and its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) on which he served. He also became the father-in-law of Rabbi Nochum Percovitz.
[edit] Personality
Rabbi Shmuelevitz was well-known for his ability to become totally engrossed in his Torah study for hours at a time. His ethical discourses, many of which have been published in English, attracted huge crowds of anxious listeners and are considered classics. They offer novel interpretations and reveal his penetrating insights into human nature.
His greatness in Torah was matched only by his sterling character. Possessing an all-encompassing concern for his fellow Jew, his constant preoccupation with the well-being of others was a manifestation of the love that poured forth from his great heart.
Rabbi Shmuelevitz's respect for his father was legendary and he quoted him often in both Torah lectures and Mussar discourses. He considered his father's handwritten Torah novellae his most valued possessions. During the Six Day War, when the yeshivah was within range of Jordanian artillery fire, Rabbi Shmuelevitz sent some of the manuscripts to America with his uncle, Rabbi Avraham Yoffen, with specific instructions that he carry them by hand and not put them in his luggage, because "Dos iz mein gantze leben - This is my whole life."
[edit] Final Days
A few days after Succos 1978, Rabbi Shmuelevitz was rushed to the hospital and, for the next two months, his life hung by a thread. Even during the weeks of semi-consciousness his lips moved, and from time to time he could be heard mumbling words of Torah. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein said that "the world rested upon Reb Chaim's shoulders"; Jews worldwide prayed for his recovery, but it was not to be. Two months later, Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz died at the age of 76. Almost a hundred thousand mourners attended his funeral.
During his fruitful lifetime, he committed to paper his every lecture and public address, leaving behind at his passing thousands of handwritten pages, including novellae on every tractate of the Talmud.
[edit] External links
- Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz, tzemachdovid.org
