Nosson Zvi Finkel
Nosson Zvi (Nota Hirsh) Finkel (
1849-
1927), was born in
Lithuania and died in the
British Mandate of Palestine. He was an influential leader of
Orthodox Judaism in
Eastern Europe and founder of the
Slabodka Yeshiva, in the town of
Slabodka (a suburb of
Kaunas). He is better known by the
Yiddish appellation
der Alter ("the Elder"). Many of his pupils were to become major leaders of Orthodox Judaism in the
USA and
Israel.
Nota Hirsh was orphaned at an early age, and not much is known about his formative years. At a young age, he went to study at the
Kelm Talmud Torah under Rabbi
Simcha Zissel Ziv The Alter of Kelm.
Despite his influence, he was an intensely private person. Yet, he personally oversaw the complete student body of the
yeshiva.
His motto was summed up in the words
Gadlut HaAdam ("Greatness of Man"). He stressed the need for
mussar (ethics), using works such as those of Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, polishing the character traits of his students so that they would aspire to become
gedolim - "great ones" in all areas of both scholarship, and personal
ethics .
He spent ten out of every twelve months with his students full time, only returning to his wife for the Jewish holidays. He had special agents that would keep an eye out all over Europe for teenagers with an aptitude for both scholarship and leadership, recruiting them and bringing them back to Slobodka. He attained unusual success, and his students subsequently reflected that he was a master of the human psyche and knew just which psychological buttons to press to give direction to his students' lives.
He would monitor the extra-curricular behavior of students judging their character faults and strengths. He was responsible for deciding which boys would share rooms together, weighing the strengths of one against the other. Some were chosen to be his personal assistants. He stressed the importance of outer appearance and the need for neatness and cleanliness. He did not want the image of the poor, tattered, down-trodden
yeshiva bochur (yeshiva student) to be associated with the alumni of his institution. The rabbinical and
Talmudical graduates of the Slobodka Yeshiva tried to live up to a higher code of dress and deportment, to the point of being accused of being dandies.
He would send teams of his trained prized pupils to places that needed a boost in religious observance and learning of
Torah. His own son, Eliezer Yehudah (
Lazer Yudel) Finkel eventually became the head of the far older Mir yeshiva, eventually leading it all the way to Jerusalem where it is today the largest post-high school yeshiva in the world with thousands of students.
His main opponents in the
"yeshiva world" were the members and alumni of the
Brisk yeshiva of Lithuania headed by the Soloveitchik family, who (unlike their kin
Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik who eventually moved to the United States) were adamantly opposed to any changes in what they believed to be the time-tested ways of yeshiva education. To this day, their
yeshivot, based mainly in Jerusalem today, do not teach
mussar (ethics) as a separate curriculum, but focus on pure
Talmud study.
Rabbi Finkel's opponents argued that the pure focus on the Talmud would automatically create greatness in both scholarship and ethics. But Rabbi Finkel believed that, while this might have been true in previous generations, the modern age was different. In his view, too many new enticing secular ideologies, such as
Socialism and
Zionism and the very real lure of
atheism in
universities, were becoming a replacement for traditional
Judaism for many young
Jews. He was determined to prove that what he had to offer was more appealing than anything the outside world could offer.
Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel staged one of the most dramatic moves in the history of yeshivot. In the
1920s he decided to create a branch of his yeshiva in the
Land of Israel, together with the dean Rabbi
Moshe Mordechai Epstein, setting it up in
Hebron and sending waves of hand-picked students there, culminating with his own permanent
aliyah, "going up", to the Holy Land two years before his passing.
In the region of
Palestine he founded his own institution in the town of
Hebron called
Knesses Yisroel - "Gathering of Israel", which moved to
Jerusalem following the massacre of Jews during the
1929 Palestine riots in which many of the yeshiva students perished.
During his lifetime, he molded many who would eventually become the heads (
Roshei Yeshiva) of most of the so-called Lithuanian-style Yeshivot that were established in the
United States and
Israel during the
20th century, and which continue to grow dramatically in the
21st century. Some of the more famous ones are:
* Rabbi
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel (son of the
Alter) of
Mir yeshiva in
Jerusalem,
Israel* Rabbi
Yitzchok Hutner of
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin of
Brooklyn, New York* Rabbi
Yaakov Kamenetsky of
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in
Brooklyn, New York* Rabbi
Aaron Kotler, of
Beth Medrash Govoha in
Lakewood, New Jersey* Rabbi
Dovid Leibowitz of
Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim: Rabbinical Seminary of America in
Queens* Rabbi
Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman of
Yeshiva Ner Yisrael: Ner Israel Rabbinical College in
Baltimore, Maryland* Rabbi
Yechezkel Sarna, head of
Chevron Yeshiva, Jerusalem, Israel
* Rabbi
Isaac Sherr, head of the
Slabodka yeshiva of
Bnei Brak, Israel
* Rabbi
Elazar Shach of
Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel
The Alter did not personally author any books or essays, but some of his ethical discourses were published under the name
Ohr HaTzafun - "The Hidden Light", (also meaning "The Light of the Hidden (One)"). The word
Ha-Tz[a]-F[u]-N also being the four initials of his name, but not in order ("Hirsh-Tzvi-Finkel-Nota"). The title alludes to the hidden and mysterious nature of its subject, as he used to sign his name as
Hatzafun.
*
Spending time in Slobodka*
Learning from the Alter*
1929 Palestine riots Slabodka victims
