Elazar Shach
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. Recognized as a noted
Talmudic scholar and author of the
Avi Ezri a commentary on the
Mishneh Torah. 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").
Rabbi Shach was born in Wabolnick (
Vabalninkas, or Vaboilnik in Yiddish), a rural village in northern
Lithuania to a family of
Lithuanian Jews who were merchants. He 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 Zvi Finkel. He came to the attention of Rabbi
Isser Zalman Meltzer and he soon became one of Rabbi Meltzer's favorite pupils. When Rabbi Meltzer left Slabodka to create his own
yeshiva in
Slutsk, Rabbi Shach went with him.
Rabbi Meltzer became both a father figure and patron to the young Rabbi Shach, even arranging his marriage with his niece, Guttel.
After his marriage, Rabbi Shach became involved in teaching Talmud and yeshiva administration. The
Slutsk yeshiva relocated to
Kletsk in
Poland after the
Russian Revolution of 1917. (the Slutsk yeshiva later gained fame as the
Lakewood yeshiva in America.) Rabbi Shach taught in the yeshiva, then run by Rabbi Meltzer's son-in-law, Rabbi
Aharon Kotler, and also worked as the dean of a yeshiva run by the
Karlin Hasidim in
Luninets.
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. Rabbi Shach instead opted to go to
Palestine with his family: "Rabbi Shach's uncle, Reb Isser Zalman, who by then had moved to Yerushalayim where he was serving as Rosh Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, helped Rabbi Shach and his family get certificates to go to Eretz Yisroel (known then as Palestine), from the British Mandate powers." [
1]
Shortly after his arrival, he worked in several
Religious Zionist yeshivas, something that detractors later considered a "black mark" on his reputation. 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.
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.
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 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 Shach's split with Agudat Israel. While initially Shas was largely under the aegis of Rabbi Shach 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.
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".
However on diplomatic issues many considered Shach something of a moderate, though a more accurate description would be to label him a pragmatist. Shach 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.
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 Schneerson's death in 1994. Shach repeatedly accused Schneerson personally of committing heresy, and his followers of false Messianism. When once asked which religion was theologically closest to Judaism, Shach responded "Lubavitch", predictably infuriating Chabad. [
2], [
3] Rabbi Shach also compared Chabad and Rabbi Schneerson to the followers of the 17th-century false messiah
Sabbatai Zevi. [
4]
In addition to Rabbi Shach's objections to some Chabad members venerating Rabbi Schneerson as the Messiah (both before and after his death), the two also disagreed on various issues of Jewish law, custom and philosophy, as well as politics. (See:
Hasidim and Mitnagdim). While Chabad under Rabbi Schneerson was opposed to any peace talks with the Palestinians or to relinquishing any Israeli territory under any circumstance, Rabbi Shach alternately supported both left and right-wing parties in the Israeli elections. During the 1988 elections, Schneerson encouraged Israeli Haredim to vote for
Agudat Israel over the newly-formed
Degel HaTorah, attempting to scuttle Shach's bid at political independence from the Hasidic leaders. In response, Shach's newspaper,
Yated Ne'eman, ran several articles documenting various Chabad writings and statements that supported Shach's contention that Lubavitch was becoming a breakaway
sect of Judaism focused around Schneerson as the Messiah. The divide between the two leaders continued to increase up until Rabbi Schneerson's death, and has persisted among their followers.
Some of Rabbi Shach's critics, particularly in Chabad, characterized his opposition to Rabbi Schneerson as being personal in nature, and stemming from private disagreements between the two leaders, but Shach's supporters defended his harsh criticism of Chabad, saying the movement represented a very real threat of turning religious Jews to apostasy. 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 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.
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.
*"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."
*
Biography (Jewish Observer)*
Rabbi Shach and Lithuanian Anti-Zionism (E.Segal)*
From child genius to ultra-Orthodox leader, 1898-2001, by Shahar Ilan,
Haaretz,
2001.
*
Collection of Haaretz links relating to Shach*
Obituary from The Guardian, by Lawrence Joffe,
The Guardian,
2001.
*
Abstract*
Link to an abstract of an obituary.
