The never-ending cycle of Torah study in Bnei Brak was at a standstill this week as the entire city mourned the loss of Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, zt”l, who died on Tuesday at the age of 104. Universally regarded as a gadol hador, or “greatest of the generation,” his voice was sought by Jews worldwide on Torah and practical matters, which he provided from his humble dwelling on 5 Chazon Ish Street.
Rav Shteinman was as modest as his home. Throughout his life, he avoided publicity, requesting in his will a speedy levaya with a minimal amount of hespedim and publicity. Such understated glory contrasts with the centenarian’s impact on Orthodox life in Israel and beyond, as he organized the yeshiva-learning community into a potent social and political force.
As small as his home was, it hosted countless individuals seeking his blessing and advice, ranging from yeshiva students to politicians and diplomats. “Rabbi Shteinman carried the entire weight of the existence of the Jewish people on his shoulders,” said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. “A Torah giant and guide who directed and guided the lives of thousands and tens of thousands. Despite his steadfast views he knew how to pass on his message—pleasantly, softly and out of great love for every Jew.”
“The last time I met him I was treated to a special spark of the glorious Jewish history of Lithuania. The rabbi was tremendously dedicated to Torah study, he was a phenomenal scholar with a sharp eye and a good heart. He was rich with life’s experience, whose scholarship was exceeded only by his personal humility. His death leaves me with a deep feeling of loss. May his memory be blessed,” Rivlin concluded.
Rav Shteinman was born in 1913 in what is now Belarus, then part of the Russian empire. Regarded as a promising talent in Torah knowledge, he studied under the guidance of Harav Moshe Sokolovsky and Harav Aharon Kotler. Living in Brisk, he had some of the leading lights in the Litvish approach as neighbors and mentors, including Harav Chaim Soloveitchik.
In 1937, after receiving a draft notice from the Polish army, he fled together with Rav Soloveitchik’s grandson Moshe to Switzerland. The escape from Brisk likely saved his life from the impending Holocaust. Within two years, the city was occupied by the Soviets and subsequently by the Nazis. In Switzerland, he was briefly interned in a labor camp, but then secured work as a maggid shiur in Montreaux. It was in this neutral refuge that he met his rebbetzin, Tamar Kornfeld, and together they made aliyah in 1945.
He developed a close relationship with the Chazon Ish, who had re-established the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. In those early years, Rav Shteinman headed its yeshiva ketana. At the time, the Chazon Ish confronted Israel’s founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion on matters such as national service and public funding for yeshivos. At the time of his passing in 1953, the number of draft-exempt kollel students was only 1,240, but under Rav Shteinman’s guidance, adult learning institutions grew as did the number of married kollel students, swelling to hundreds of thousands at this time.
Along with his role as an educator and learner, he published the widely read Ayeles HaShachar al HaTorah, on the Torah and Shas. Decades of Rav Shteinman’s parsha commentaries, halachic insights and practical advice have been compiled into books, most notably ”A Gadol In Our Time” by Libby Lazewnik, “Leading with Love” by Israel Bookshop Publishers, and ”A Warm Heart” by Rabbi Avraham Ohayun.
The growth of the yeshivish community in Israel inspired Rav Menachem Eliezer Man Schach to form the Degel Hatorah party in the 1980s, which ran candidates for the Knesset, where they sought to preserve the religious-secular status quo in Israeli society, often serving as a vital partner in governing coalitions. Following Rav Schach’s death, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was regarded as the leading sage among Orthodox Jews in Israel. Nevertheless, Rav Shteinman was often consulted on matters of public policy.
In recent years, the issue of mandatory military service has become a leading source of conflict within Israeli society, as secular politicians seek to compel kollel students into the army, arguing that the number of exempt individuals is too high.
Rav Shteinman was unyielding in defending the exemptions of any man who wished to learn in a kollel, but at the same time supported the compromise of having them registered before the draft boards as officially exempt. More extreme elements within the haredi sector, such as the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta and followers of Rav Shmuel Auerbach, staged riots, assaulting haredi soldiers and burning them in effigy. This was not the approach of Rav Shteinman, who responded in a firm but diplomatic manner not only to the draft controversy, but also poverty in the haredi sector and job training. When the Nachal Haredi battalion was created to combine Torah study and military service, he quietly offered his support, earning harsh vitriol from zealots in the community. It was a tacit recognition that not all haredim are destined for a life of kollel learning, and those who wish to pursue careers or military service should not be shunned.
Opposition Leader MK Yitzhak Herzog noted the point: “The rabbi led many revolutions in the world of Torah scholars, including working to bring haredim into the workforce. His crystal-clear view favored dialogue and trying to forge agreements. How fortunate he was to raise up so many generations of Torah scholars,” Herzog said.
Herzog also emphasised the rabbi’s modesty and spiritual power, and said his impact on haredi Judaism would continue to be felt for generations. “Teaching Torah and imparting values for future generations was the center of his world-view. That brought about many revolutionise for the world of Torah students,” Herzog said.
As he approached the century mark, Rav Shteinman was as active as ever in his outreach. In 2010, he led a whirlwind chizuk mission that stopped in France, Germany, Ukraine and Gibraltar. His personal visits to these communities made a great impression on local Jews, bolstering their connections to the yeshivos of Israel and the daas Torah of the roshei yeshiva.
Rav Gershon Edelstein will continue to head the Ponevezh Yeshiva, while Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, lives on as the last link to the pre-war European yeshiva world. “His clarity, powerful thought and clear-headed leadership in the ways of the Torah with a deep understanding of the profundities of life and coping in our lives were unforgettable,” said Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau in a statement. “Rabbi Shteinman was a once-in-a-generation leader.”
Israel Radio reported that 600,000 mourners were expected to accompany the rabbi to his final resting place, but “10 people at my funeral would be enough,” Shteinman had written in his will, which was read aloud by one of his students at the funeral.
The rabbi died of cardiac arrest in Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center after being hospitalized several weeks earlier.
“With the death of Rav Shteinman, the Jewish people lost a central beacon of spirituality, heritage and ethics,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “His memory will forever remain in the pages of our nation’s heritage.”
By Sergey Kadinsky and combined sources
