Shlomo Miller


Shlomo Eliyahu Miller is a Rosh Kollel and co-founder of the Kollel Avreichim Institute for Advanced Talmud Study, a haredi post-yeshiva educational institution in Toronto and head of its Beis Din. He is the foremost Litvish Haredi Posek in Toronto.
Miller is the head of the Beis Din of the Va'ad Harabonim of Lakewood of Lakewood, NJ and heads a Kollel there as well. He is a close friend of Avraham Bromberg. Miller is a strong opponent of any weakening of the rule of Halacha.

Personal life

Rabbinic history

Miller learned in the Talmudical Academy of Baltimore and was a close talmid of Rav Aaron Kotler. He began deciding Halachic disputes after Rav Moshe Feinstein began referring halakhic disputes to him, although he never received formal semikhah. Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv is said to have called Miller the posek of North America. He founded Kollel Toronto along with Rav Yaakov Hirschman in 1970.

Works

She'eilos U'Teshuvos Ma'ayanei Shlomo, a compilation of his Teshuvos, was published by his son in law, Avrohom Goldner.
Rav Mordche Kanner has written multiple works based on the rulings of Miller, including Shoshanas Yisroel on Hilchos Purim.

Some major rulings and statements

Shabbos mode ovens

Miller was a signatory to the ruling forbidding changing the temperature of Shabbos Mode ovens on Yom Tov.

Slifkin controversy

Miller wrote a letter voicing his support of the controversial ban of Natan Slifkin's books by a number of prominent rabbis. His defense of the rabbis and the ban was itself controversial, as evidenced by the responses it generated. Miller and Slifkin met in Toronto in December 2007. Slifkin reported that, despite their "strong disagreements", they had "a very pleasant conversation" in "a nice, polite atmosphere." Slifkin noted, however, that nothing was resolved.

''Techeiles'' debate

Miller investigated the claim that the sea snail Murex trunculus was the source of the biblical techeiles. In a letter on the subject, he wrote that he believes that there are several Talmudic proofs that the Murex is not the creature from which techeiles is produced, and that the evidence in support of the claim is insufficient to overcome these points. Prominent techeiles researcher Yisroel Barkin authored a comprehensive disputation of Rabbi Millers' letter.