Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman
Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, also Shtainman or Steinman, was a Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. Following the death of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in 2012, he was widely regarded as the Gadol HaDor, the leader of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Haredi Jewish world. He, along with several other rabbis, is credited with reviving and expanding the appeal of European-style yeshivas in Israel.
Biography
Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteiman was born in Kamyenyets, the son of R. Noach Tzvi and Gittel Faiga, and raised in Brest, then part of the Russian Empire. He studied in Yeshivas Imrei Moshe, headed by Rabbi Moshe Skolovsky, in Brest, and attended shiurim given by Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav. He also studied in Kletzk under Rabbi Aharon Kotler.Upon reaching draft age in 1937, he was subject to the Polish draft, as Brest had come under the control of the newly established Polish state in the aftermath of the First World War. He and his close friend, Rabbi Moische Soloveitchik, tried to evade the draft by starving themselves, but they were declared fit to serve by the draft officer. The two then fled with other Brisk students to Montreux, Switzerland, where they returned to Torah study in Yeshivas Etz Chaim. With the outbreak of World War II, the two became war refugees, and were incarcerated in the Schonenberg labor camp near Basel, where nearly all the inmates were Torah-observant. Rav Shteinman and his friend were put to work laying roads, but due to his thin frame and short stature, he was released from manual labor and assigned to a desk job.
Rav Shteinman was the only member of his family to survive the war. While still in Switzerland, he married Tamar Kornfeld, the daughter of Rabbi Shammai Shraga Kornfeld of Antwerp. She had been sent to Switzerland from Poland to cure her respiratory problems, and had also become a refugee when World War II broke out. The couple had four children.
Rav Shteinman was known for his extremely modest lifestyle. His apartment, on Chazon Ish Street 5, was sparsely furnished, and had not been painted in many years. Until 2014, he slept on the same thin mattress that he had received from the Jewish Agency upon his arrival in Israel in the early 1950s.
In December 2016, the rabbi was hospitalized with pneumonia at Ma’ayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak. The rabbi recovered, but doctors said at the time that they were "very concerned", and that a "general decline" in his physical condition has begun. In January 2017, at 103 years of age, Rav Shteinman was again hospitalized. The Jerusalem Post reported that the rabbi was suffering from shortness of breath and an infection-related fever. He was released after two weeks in intensive care. He was again hospitalized in October 2017, for fever and weakness, and was released after several days in intensive care. Two weeks later, while he was at the hospital for testing, there was an unexpected deterioration of his health. Rav Shteinman died on 12 December 2017, aged 104. His funeral was attended by an estimated 200,000 Jews.
Rabbinic career
During his first years in Israel, Rav Shteinman and his family lived in Kfar Saba; his sons were sent to a cheder in Petah Tikva. Eventually, they relocated to Bnei Brak, where he headed the Ponevezh Kollel. In 1955, the Ponevezher Rav, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, opened the yeshivah ketanah of Ponevezh, called Ponevezh L'Tzi'irim, and asked Rav Shteinman to serve as rosh yeshivah, together with Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz. RavShteinman stopped giving his regular shiur in 1998, but retained the title of rosh yeshiva. He was also rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov, which is led by his son-in-law, Rabbi Zev Berlin.
Rav Shteinman was also the author of a popular series of kuntresim on Torah subjects such as emunah, chinuch, and hashgacha. The pamphlets are based on shiurim that he began giving to Ponevezh Kollel students in his home in 1994, and on shmuessen that he began giving to students in Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov in 1978. Ranging in size from 24 to 100 pages, the pamphlets quickly sold out. An English-language translation of many of these subjects was published in 2013 by Israel Book Shop under the title Leading with Love: Guidance for Our Generation from Maran HaRav Aharon Yehudah Leib Shteinman shlit"a on Torah, Emunah, Chinuch, the Home, and More.
Despite publicly supporting life-long Torah study and forbidding secular learning, Rav Shteinman's private positions were more nuanced and accommodating. This made him a target of criticism from both right-wing elements of the Haredi world, as well as reformists.
Political career
Rabbi Elazar Shach, the founder of the Degel HaTorah political party, when consulted for advice, would at times refer people to consult with HaRav Shteinman. Rav Shteinman was a leader of the Haredi Degel HaTorah political party, and exerted much political power in the United Torah Judaism political coalition. UTJ is an alliance of Degel HaTorah and the Agudat Israel party. HaRav Shteinman was close with the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, a major supporter of Agudat Israel.Travels abroad
When he was in his nineties, Rav Shteinman undertook to visit and strengthen key Haredi and other religious Jewish communities outside of Israel. In 2005, he visited a number of cities in North America with significant Haredi populations or institutions, including in Brooklyn, Lakewood, New York, and Passaic, meeting with many American Haredi rabbis, including Rabbi Aharon Schechter of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin.He traveled to the Jewish community of Los Angeles on Lag Ba'omer in 2006, during a trip to America. Over five thousand individuals attended the gathering. He planned to travel together with Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the Gerrer Rebbe, to Montreal in May 2006, but they delayed their trip to avoid protests from the Neturei Karta. After visiting Montreal, the rabbis parted ways. The Gerrer Rebbe continued to New York, and then returned to Jerusalem, while Rav Shteinman went on to visit the Jewish communities in several South American cities, including Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
In May 2007, Rav Shteinman visited France, then England, where he addressed large gatherings in Manchester and Gateshead. In June 2010, Rav Shteinman visited the Jewish communities of Odessa, Berlin, and Gibraltar. In 2012, he traveled to Paris to deliver talks to the French Jewish community.
Published works
Rav Shteinman originally published his main works on the Talmud anonymously under the name Ayelet HaShachar.Ayeles HaShachar al HaTorah
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Ayeles HaShachar on Shas
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- Zevachim
Yimaleh Pi Tehilasecha - Mussar shmusen
Mipekudecha Esbonan - Talks on Yomim Noraim