Shmuel Rozovsky


Shmuel Rozovsky was 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.
He was born in Grodno to the town's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Michel Dovid Rozovsky and Sarah Pearl, daughter of Rav Avraham Gelburd. At a very young age, he began studying under Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in the Yeshiva of Rabbi Shimon Shkop and eventually became considered one of the principal students of Rabbi Shimon Shkop.
In 1935, after the death of Rav Shmuel's father, Rav Shmuel 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, Rav Shmuel married his wife, the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rav Shmuel eventually began to lecture in the Lomzha Yeshiva in Petach Tivkva alongside Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro and Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach. In 1944, he was asked by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman to head the newly opened Ponovezh Yeshivah in Bnei Barak. Eventually, Rabbi Dovid Povarsky and Rabbi Elazar Shach also joined as co-Roshei Yeshiva there.
While being treated medically in a hospital in Boston, Rav Shmuel was said to have specifically asked for an audience with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Despite his strong emphasis on Talmudic skills, Rav Shmuel also stressed personal perfection and Mussar as well as the need to study other facets of Torah including Chumash with the commentaries of Rashi and Nachmanides.

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