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RabbiMordechai Gifter
Gifter in 1988
Personal life
Born	October 15, 1915 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Died	January 18, 2001
Nationality	American
Children	6 Binyomin Gifter Shmuel Zalman Gifter Yisroel Gifter Shlomis Eisenberg Chasya Reisman Luba Rochel Feuer
Parent	Yisroel Gifter
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Denomination	Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
Predecessor	Chaim Mordechai Katz

Mordechai Gifter (October 15, 1915 - January 18, 2001) was an American Haredi rabbi. He was the rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland.

Gifter studied in yeshivas in Lithuania, and held several rabbinical positions in the United States.

Early life and education

Gifter was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to Yisrael and Matla (May) Gifter. He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a grocery. He attended the Baltimore City Public Schools, at the time being known as Max, and received his religious education in after-school programs. He had a younger brother and sister, and both predeceased him.

As a young man, Gifter studied in the Rabbi Isaac Elchonon Theological Seminary in New York City, under the tutelage of Moshe Aharon Poleyeff and Moshe Soloveichik. His uncle, Samuel Saar (Yehudah Leib), was the dean of the seminary. At the time, Avigdor Miller, also a Baltimore native, was learning in RIETS. On Saar's advice, Gifter traveled in 1932 to Lithuania on the same boat as Miller to study in the Telshe Yeshiva. Gifter was immediately accepted for admission and placed in advanced classes. He developed a strong bond with Zalman Bloch, the mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) at the yeshiva. He eventually became engaged to Bloch's daughter. In 1939, prior to his wedding, Gifter returned home to the United States to visit his parents in Baltimore. He planned on returning to Lithuania for his wedding and to resume his studies.

When it became obvious that he would be unable to return due to the political climate of the late 1930s, Gifter arranged for his bride's family to join him in the United States. Only his bride came; the family chose not to abandon their community in its time of greatest need. The Gifters married in Baltimore, with Mrs. Gifter's family still in war-torn Lithuania. One of the witnesses at Gifter's wedding was Bernard Lander, then a rabbi in Baltimore and later founder of Touro College.

Career

Shortly thereafter, Gifter was appointed to the pulpit of the Nusach Ari Synagogue in northwest Baltimore. In addition to his rabbinic position, Gifter was appointed an adjunct lecturer at the expanding Ner Israel Rabbinical College headed by Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. He was the first native Baltimorean to lead a congregation in the city.

In 1941, Gifter moved to Waterbury, Connecticut and assumed a rabbinic pulpit in that community. In 1944, Gifter moved to Cleveland, Ohio to join the faculty of his alma mater, the newly re-established Rabbinical College of Telshe, which was moved from Telshe, Lithuania to Cleveland. The original school and Telshe community were almost completely destroyed by the Nazis and Lithuanian militia. In 1964, he was appointed as dean together with Boruch Sorotzkin.

In 1977, Gifter brought 20 students from Cleveland to Israel and opened a branch of the college in the town of Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz-Stone), leaving Sorotzkin in charge of the Cleveland campus. In addition to teaching his students, Gifter delivered a shiur (Torah lecture) on the Minchas Chinuch on Fridays in Jerusalem, attracting many Torah scholars. Notes from that shiur were eventually compiled in a sefer (book) called Pitei Mincha. When Sorotzkin died in 1979, Gifter was sent back to the United States to lead the Cleveland campus and the Israeli branch closed. From that point on, Gifter moved into small quarters in the students' dormitory, eschewing his on-campus residence. He purportedly did this due to his distress out of feeling compelled to live in golus (the Jewish diaspora).

For many years, Gifter led the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (presidium and leadership council) of Agudath Israel of America. He maintained a relationship with his first faculty position at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, returning to Baltimore annually to visit his daughter and son-in-law and friends.

Gifter died in 2001, having suffered numerous ailments for many years prior to his death. He was eulogized by Dovid Barkin, among others.

Family

Gifter was survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.

Controversy

As a leading Haredi scholar, Gifter frequently addressed controversial topics. In one lecture, he sharply berated Haskel Lookstein for his condemnation of Elazar Shach's criticism of Adin Steinsaltz.

Works

Writings

Gifter was a prolific writer. As a young man he authored articles on some of the most complicated issues in Jewish Law, which were published in the Talmudic law Journal of Tzvi Pesach Frank.

He published numerous books on Jewish Law, philosophy, theology and bible. He was a frequent contributor to many scholarly journals, and once wrote an article for the Western Reserve University Law Review.

Among his books are:

Hebrew:

• Pirkei Torah - Commentary on the Bible.
• Hirhurei Teshuva - Commentary on Maimonides' Laws of Repentance.
• Pitei Mincha - Commentary on the Minchas Chinuch.
• Pirkei Iyun - Commentary on the Talmudic Tractate Makkos.
• Pirkei Moed - Commentary on the Festivals.

English:

• Torah Perspectives - Essay on a variety of topics.
• Pirkei Torah - Commentary on the Bible.

References

1. "The Fire of Telshe: Rav Mordechai Gifter ZT"L".
2. ^ "Shiurim By Rabbi Mordechai Gifter - Torah Downloads". TorahDownload.com.
3. ^ Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum (December 22, 2010). "Rav Mordechai Gifter zt"l, On his Tenth Yahrtzeit, 23 Teves". yated.com.
4. Dr. L. (Yitzchok) Levine. "Two Letters from Rav Mordechai Gifter" (PDF).
5. The Lander Legacy : The Life Story of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander, Page 42
6. Rose, Binyamin. "The Prince of America's Torah Renaissance: An appreciation of Rav Mordechai Gifter, ztz"l, on his tenth yahrtzeit". Mishpacha, 29 December 2010, pp. 33–34.
7. "Diversity in Orthodoxy & the Greatness of Maran Rav Shach, two part lecture". torahdownloads.com. Retrieved 2018-02-27. Specifically part 2, from 19:50 on. At 24:01, Gifter reveals that he is talking about Lookstein.
8. "Titles by Rabbi Mordechai Gifter". artscroll.com.
9. Gifter, Mordechai (1958). "Talmudic Jurisprudence". Law in a Troubled World.
10. Gifter, Mordechai. Law in a Troubled World. OL 5776036M.

External links

• Kolel Ateres Mordechai Mordechai Gifter's publications
• Torah Downloads Lectures
• Torah Anytime More lectures

v t e Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
Europe World Agudath Israel	Past members Avraham Mordechai Alter Meir Arik Dovid Bornsztain Shlomo Zalman Breuer Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky Meir Simcha of Dvinsk Moshe Mordechai Epstein Avraham Yaakov Friedman Chaim Ozer Grodzinski Yisrael Meir Kagan Aharon Kotler Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern Meir Dan Plotzky Yitzhak Yaakov Rabinovich Sholom Dovber Schneersohn Meir Shapiro Chaim Soloveitchik Zalman Sorotzkin Yehuda Leib Tsirelson Shmuel Dovid Ungar Elchonon Wasserman Menachem Ziemba
Israel Agudat Yisrael Degel HaTorah	Past members Pinchas Menachem Alter Simcha Bunim Alter Yisrael Alter Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Yosef Shalom Eliashiv Aryeh Finkel Nosson Tzvi Finkel Avraham Yaakov Friedman Avraham Yaakov Friedman Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi Yisroel Moshe Friedman Levi Yitzchak Horowitz Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz Isser Zalman Meltzer Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg Yitzchok Scheiner Elazar Menachem Shach Yitzchak Isaac Sher Yochanan Sofer Zalman Sorotzkin Dov Yaffe Shabsi Yogel Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman Gershon Edelstein Baruch Weisbecker Present members Yaakov Aryeh Alter Nachum Dov Brayer Menachem Mendel Hager Yisroel Hager Zvi Elimelech Halberstam Mayer Alter Horowitz Yissachar Dov Rokeach Moshe Hillel Hirsch Dov Lando Baruch Dov Povarsky Yitzchok Zilberstein Eliezer Yehuda Finkel
United States Agudath Israel of America	Past members Dovid Feinstein Moshe Feinstein Mordechai Shlomo Friedman Mordechai Gifter Refael Reuvain Grozovsky Shlomo Heiman Levi Yitzchak Horowitz Yitzchok Hutner Yaakov Kamenetsky Chaim Mordechai Katz Aharon Kotler Shneur Kotler Avraham Yaakov Pam Yaakov Perlow Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman Gedalia Schorr Eliezer Silver Joseph B. Soloveitchik Baruch Sorotzkin Yisrael Spira Elya Svei Mendel Zaks Aaron Schechter Present members Elya Brudny Hillel David Aharon Feldman Yosef Chaim Frankel Aharon Dovid Goldberg Yaakov Horowitz Shmuel Kamenetsky Malkiel Kotler Shlomo Miller Yerucham Olshin Yosef Harari Raful Yitzchok Sorotzkin Shimon Yehuda Svei
Category

• 1915 births
• 2001 deaths
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American rabbis
• American Haredi rabbis
• American male non-fiction writers
• Authors of works on the Talmud
• Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
• Jewish American non-fiction writers
• Rabbis from Maryland
• Rabbis from Ohio
• Rabbis from Virginia
• Religious leaders from Cleveland
• Religious leaders from Richmond, Virginia
• Rosh yeshivas
• Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
• Writers from Baltimore
• Writers from Cleveland
• Writers from Waterbury, Connecticut