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Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach (אלעזר מנחם מן שך) (or Rav Leizer Shach, at times his name is written as Eliezer 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, and founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews in the Israeli Knesset, many of whom considered him to be the Gadol HaDor ("supreme religious leader of the generation") and used the honorific Maran (" 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 approbations to his works; he authored the Avi Ezri a commentary on the Mishneh Torah.

Life in Europe

Rabbi Shach was born in Wabolnick (Vabalninkas, pronounced Vaboilnik in Yiddish), 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 religious scholars who served various Lithuanian communities. Batsheva's brother, Rabbi Nisan 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 Nosson Tzvi Finkel, as well as Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, dean of the Slutsk yeshiva. Shach soon became one of Rabbi Meltzer's favorite pupils, beginning a lifelong relationship of friendship and respect.

When World War One began in 1914, many of the Slabodka yeshiva students scattered across Europe. Shach initially returned to his family but then began traveling across Lithuania from town to town, sleeping and eating wherever he could and studying in local synagogues, continuing to learn "as if there were no war" . After the war Shach rejoined Rabbi Meltzer and his son-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, in Kletsk, Poland. When Rabbi Meltzer returned to Slutsk, Shach followed him (the Slutsk yeshiva later gained fame as the Lakewood yeshiva in America).

Rabbi Meltzer became both a father figure and patron to the young Rabbi Shach, even arranging his marriage with his niece, Guttel, in 1923. Shach received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Meltzer and began teaching in the Kletsk yeshiva in 1927, where he taught for five years. He served as rosh yeshiva in Lublin, then taught Talmud at the Novardok yeshiva as well. In 1936 he became rosh yeshiva at Karlin yeshiva in Luninets.

Escaping to the British Mandate of Palestine

Shortly before the start of World War II and the Holocaust, several yeshivas began considering evacuating their rabbis, students and families. Rabbi Kotler eventually left for America, travelling across Siberia and arriving in the United States during the war. In 1939, Rabbi Shach first went to Vilna, where he stayed with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Later that year both Shach's mother and eldest daughter fell ill and died. In early 1940 the Shach family decided to leave Lithuania. Rabbi Shach's maternal uncle, Rabbi Aron Levitan, had helped Rabbi Kotler get emigration visas, but Rabbi Shach instead decided to go to Palestine, where Rabbi Meltzer was serving as Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva Etz Chaim in Jerusalem (Rabbi Shach would later serve as Rosh Yeshiva there as well). His uncle helped Rabbi Shach and his family get emigration certificates and took them in after they arrived at his doorstep, destitute.

Several years after the re-establishment of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, he was asked to be one of its deans. He remained in the position until his passing. At this Yeshiva, Rav Shach taught many thousands of students, many of whom eventually assumed prominent positions as Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbis.

Rabbinical career

Rabbi Shach was credited by many for helping revolutionize the concept of the "society of learners" in the post-war Haredi world. Under his leadership, the phenomenon of Haredi men studying in yeshivas and kollels full-time, something that had been comparatively rare in Europe before World War II, became the standard in many Haredi communities in Israel, with the financial backing of Haredi communities and subsidies to young families with many children from the Israeli government.

Political life

Rabbi Shach was a member of the Agudat Israel Council of Torah Sages beginning the 1970s, during which time he began to take special notice of the second-class situation of Sephardim in Israel, including Haredi Sephardim, who at that time were without any real political representation and generally voted for the Likud or Agudat Israel. In an attempt to give the Sephardim more political influence, Rabbi Shach encouraged and guided the formation of the Sephardi Shas party, under the spiritual leadership of his ally, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Shas ran for the 11th Knesset in 1984, and Rav Shach called upon his "Lithuanian" followers to vote for it in the polls, a move that many saw as key political and religious move in Rav Shach's split with Agudat Israel. While initially Shas was largely under the aegis of Rabbi Shach -- who capitalized on his influence with the Sephardic party in order to pressure Agudat Israel -- Rabbi Yosef gradually exerted control over the party and moved it away from Shach, culminating with Shas' decision to support the Labor party in the 13th Knesset in 1992, something both Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel opposed.

In 1988, citing disagreements in leadership style with the various Hasidic rebbes in the Agudat Israel party, Rabbi Shach officially broke away from Agudat Israel and formed the Degel HaTorah ("Flag of Torah") party to represent the non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredim. He nevertheless encouraged Degel HaTorah to work in an alliance with Agudat Israel under the name of United Torah Judaism, an agreement which has continued until the present.

Around 1995 Rabbi Shach political involvement slowed down, following deterioration in health, and ceased altogether afterward. Since then, his followers does not have a strong leading autority, and the two main leaders are Rabbi Elyashiv, and Rabbi Shteinman, of which Rabbi Elyashiv is more dominant.

Rabbi Shach was deeply opposed to Zionism, both religious and secular. He was fiercely dismissive of secular Israeli culture. For example, during a 1990 speech he derided kibbutzniks as "breeders of rabbits and pigs" who did not "know what Yom Kippur is". In the same speech he said that the Labor Party had cut themselves off from their Jewish past and wished to "seek a new Torah". Shach was also critical of democracy, once referring to it "cancer", adding that "only the sacred Torah is the true democracy."

However on diplomatic issues many considered Shach comparatively moderate, though "pragmatic" would be a more accurate description. Shach quickly realized the tangible political benefits that Haredi society could reap if it cultivated relationships with both poles of the Israeli political spectrum, and also supported the withdrawal from land in principle under the Halakhic teaching of Pikuach Nefesh ("the saving of a life"), in which the preservation of lives takes precedence over nearly all other obligations in the Torah, including those pertaining to the sanctity of land. Rabbi Shach criticized Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (at that time mainly settled by secular and Religious Zionist Jews) as "a blatant attempt to provoke the international community", and called on Haredim to avoid moving to such communities.

Opposition to the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Rabbi Shach was involved in a number of public disputes with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement from the 1970s through Rav Schneerson's death in 1994. Rav Shach accused his followers of false Messianism. When once asked which religion was theologically closest to Judaism, Shach responded "Chabad". Rabbi Shach also compared Chabad and Rabbi Schneerson to the followers of the 17th-century false messiah Sabbatai Zevi.

Shach once described Schneerson as "the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy.". Many other great Jewish leaders viewed Schneerson with a similar level of suspicion, including Rabbi , Rabbi and Rabbi . These concerns were not predicated on any animus toward Chassidim. It merely flowed from what appeared to be a deification of a human being, and overt Messianic overtones. Chabad broke away from all other Chassidim, and its chassidim developed a strong level of ethnocentricity. A leader of Schneerson's caliber, they felt, bore the responsibility to better educate his followers.

In addition to Rabbi Shach's objections to Chabad deificiation of Rabbi Schneerson (both before and after his death), the two also disagreed on various issues of Jewish law and philosophy, but particularly politics. Chabad strongly opposed peace talks with the Palestinians or to relinquishing any Israeli territory under any circumstance, while Rabbi Shach alternately supported both left and right-wing parties in the Israeli elections. During the 1988 elections, Schneerson, a man without any signicifance outside Lubavitch, unilaterally encouraged Israeli Haredim to vote for Agudat Israel over Rabbi Shach's newly-formed Degel HaTorah party. In response, Shach's newspaper, Yated Ne'eman, ran several articles documenting various Chabad writings and statements which exposed Lubavitch as becoming a breakaway sect of Judaism focused around Schneerson as the Messiah, if not God Himself.

Chabad characterized Rabbi Shach's opposition to Rabbi Schneerson as being personal in nature. However, practically all leaders of and have voiced the same concerns regarding Chabad Messianism, both in Israel and the United States. It has also been pointed out that Rabbi Shach was equally outspoken on many positions and issues affecting Jewish life that did not relate to Lubavitch, and that his rhetoric regarding Chabad was consistent with his personality as a leader who strongly defended Haredi Jews against any perceived threats to their beliefs or lifestyle.

Family

Rabbi Shach had three children, all born in Kletsk in the 1920s: Miriam Raisel, Devorah, and Ephraim. Miriam Raisel died as a teenager in 1939 of pneumonia. Devorah married Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, a Torah scholar in Israel, and had several children. Ephraim was unsatisfied with the Haredi lifestyle and eventually became a member of the Religious Zionist camp. He served in the Israel Defense Forces, received a doctorate in history and philosophy, and presently works as a supervisor for the Israel Ministry of Education.

Rebbetzin Guttel Schach died in 1969 from complications relating to diabetes.

Quotes

• "I remember how I was educated in my parents' home: when my yarmulke fell off my head, I was taught that you had to cry from distress. They were guided by a concern for the punctilious observance of mitzvos. Once I woke up after the zman Krias Shema according to the Mogen Avrohom and I burst out crying and continued to cry about it all day long."

References

1. Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach ZT'L (Jewish Observer) February, 2002.
2. How do you like your halakha? (Haaretz) September 28, 2006.
3. Rabbi Shach's political legacy (Jerusalem Post) November 7, 2001.
4. The Messiah of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidim Past and Present, M. Avrum Ehrlich, Chapter 10, notes, KTAV Publishing, ISBN 0881258369

• Rabbi Shach and Lithuanian Anti-Zionism (E.Segal)
• From child genius to ultra-Orthodox leader, 1898-2001, by Shahar Ilan, Haaretz, 2001.

External links

• Collection of Haaretz links relating to Shach
• Obituary, by Lawrence Joffe, The Guardian
• Obituary by David Landau, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
• Obituary from Yated Ne'eman
• Rabbi Shach as a student
• Anecdote about Rabbi Shach during World War One

• Haredi rabbis in Israel
• Rosh yeshivas
• Lithuanian Jews
• Israeli centenarians
• 1898 births
• 2001 deaths