Shmuel Rozovsky

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Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky with the Chazon Ish

Shmuel Rozovsky (1913–1979) was a rabbi, best known as a Talmudic lecturer at the Ponevezh Yeshiva located in Bnei Brak, Israel, and was counted amongst the great rabbis of his generation. He was known worldwide for his clarity in explaining complex Talmud topics.^[1]

Rav Shmuel was born in Grodno, where his father Rav Michel Dovid Rozovsky served as the chief rabbi.^[2] His mother Sara Pearl was the daughter of (the previous rabbi of Grodno.^[3] He studied at the local Sha’ar Hatorah Yeshivah and became a prized student of Rav Shimon Shkop. Rav Shmuel also studied with several older students in Grodno, and one of the earliest and most influential was Rav Yisroel Zev Gustman. Rav Gustman recalled how Rav Michel Dovid Rozovsky begged him to learn with his prodigious young son. He soon realized that this boy was special way beyond his years. “By the time he reached bar mitzvah, there was no one like him in the yeshivah. We would learn 17–18 hours a day. He knew every single one of Rav Shimon’s shiurim — literally all of his shiurim.”^[2]

In 1935, after the death of his father, Rozovsky had to flee to Eretz Yisrael to escape being drafted into the Russian army. There he studied in the Lomzha Yeshivah in Petach Tikvah. In Eretz Yisrael, Rozovsky married the daughter of Tzvi Pesach Frank, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rozovsky eventually began to lecture in the Lomzha Yeshiva in Petach Tivkva alongside Moshe Shmuel Shapiro and Elazar Menachem Shach.^[4]

Ponevezh Yeshiva[]

In 1944, he was asked by Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman to head the newly opened Ponovezh Yeshivah in Bnei Barak. Though he was later joined by Rav Dovid Povarsky and Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, Rav Shmuel was to be the yeshivah’s primary rosh yeshiva, and his lectures and study methods were to be a central influence in the postwar yeshiva world.^[2]

Despite his strong emphasis on Talmudic skills, Rozovsky also stressed personal perfection^[5] and Mussar^[6] as well as the need to study other facets of Torah including Chumash with the commentaries of Rashi and Nachmanides.

Students[]

• Gershon Edelstein of Ponevezh yeshiva (Bnei Brak)
• Asher Arieli of Yeshivas Mir
• Binyomin Moskovits, who started Midrash Shmuel Yeshiva in Sha'arei Hesed, Jerusalem, named after Rozovsky.
• , Rav of Beis Medrash , Ramat Beit Shemesh
• Rav Chaim Shaul Taub of Modzitz

Works[]

• Chiddushei Rabbi Shmuel
• Shiurei Rabbi Shmuel
• Zichron Shmuel

References[]