Elazar Shach
Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach
(Hebrew: אלעזר מנחם מן שך
)
(or Rav Leizer
Shach, at times his name is written as Eliez-
er Schach in English publications) (January
22, 1898 - November 2, 2001), was a leading
Eastern European-born and educated Haredi
rabbi who settled and lived in modern Israel.
He was the rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the
Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak the pre-emin-
ent yeshiva of Lithuanian Jewry, and founded
the Degel HaTorah political party represent-
ing Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews in the Israeli
Knesset, many of whom considered him to be
the Gadol HaDor ("great one of the genera-
tion") and used the honorific Maran ("[our]
master") when referring to him.
He was recognized as a Talmudic scholar
par excellence by scholars such as Rabbi
Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (the Brisker Rav)
and Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer in their ap-
probations to his works; he authored the Avi
Ezri a commentary on the Mishneh Torah.
Rabbi Shach’s Tombstone
Life in Europe
Rav
Shach was
born
in Wabolnick
(Vabalninkas, pronounced Vaboilnik in Yid-
dish), a rural village in northern Lithuania to
Rabbi Ezriel and Batsheva Shach. The Shach
family had been merchants for generations
but Batsheva’s family, the Levitans, were reli-
gious scholars who served various Lithuanian
communities. Batsheva’s brother, Rabbi Nis-
an Levitan, later became an important figure
in the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. Elazar was
a child prodigy, and was sent to study in the
Ponevezh yeshiva at age seven. At thirteen he
moved on to the Slabodka yeshiva, where he
caught the attention of its dean, Rabbi Nos-
son Tzvi Finkel, as well as Rabbi Isser Zal-
man Meltzer, dean of the Slutsk yeshiva. Rav
Shach soon became one of Rav Meltzer’s fa-
vorite pupils, beginning a lifelong relation-
ship of friendship and respect.
When World War I began in 1914, many of
the Slabodka yeshiva students scattered
across Europe. Rav Shach initially returned
to his family but then began traveling across
Lithuania from town to town, sleeping and
eating wherever he could a