הרב שלמה זלמן בן יוחנן ז״ל
Rabbi Steven Rosenberg, originally from Teaneck, passed away on Sunday, April 19, after a valiant struggle with the coronavirus. He was my wife Ronni’s brother and I have known him for almost 60 years.
He was a precocious child who attended Yavneh Academy in Paterson as did his sister. A serious student, he excelled in his Jewish studies, making him a favorite with his rebbeim at MTA. His parents, the late Joseph and Sylvia Rosenberg, were founders of Congregation Beth Aaron. Rabbi Stanley Fass, z”l, the shul’s first rabbi, would often call upon Steven for shiurim and divrei Torah while he was still a college student, and he attracted a large and devoted following. When he visited us in Fair Lawn, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, shlit”a, would always ask him to speak on Shabbos. He was a ben Torah and a talmud chacham in the truest sense.
He became a devoted student of Rav Soloveitchik, z”l, with whom he studied for many years. This Talmud-rebbe relationship was not limited to the school year. For six summers, Steven studied with the Rav in Cape Cod, where the Rav had a summer home. He entered the Kollel, eventually became the Beis Medrash Shoel Umashiv, and even gave a high school shiur for a while. At the age of 23 he completed Shas, the old fashioned way, and received a special presentation from Rabbi Norman Lamm, the president of YU at that time.
Life is full of pressures and not everyone can handle them equally. At some point in his upward trajectory his coping mechanisms were insufficient. He left Teaneck and YU and moved to Borough Park. There he lived a quiet life of study and contemplation, occasionally giving a shiur but mostly learning with several chavrusas and on his own. The scholarly community is blessed with an abundance of high quality seforim, both classical and contemporary. Steven, following the Rav, stayed with the basics: Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos, Shulchan Arukh, RaMBaM, and Rishonim. He could recall every sugya along with a deep analysis. At the time of his petira prior to his hospitalization, aside from his regular sedorim, he was reviewing Hilkohos Melikha in Yore Deah.
Like his rebbe, Steven was also a bit of a theologian. He would often find deep meaning in the connections between parshios and the haftaros and the parshios themselves. Our Pesach Sederim would go on for hours. One special characteristic that deserves mention is the fact that he would always try out and share his ideas with his mother, a”h, who herself had an excellent background from attending Etz Chaim in Borough Park.
His many friends and colleagues will miss him. He was modest about his accomplishments, never spoke or would tolerate lashon hara, and in his youth was a great ba’al koreh.
By Rabbi Dr. Wallace Green
