Moshe Feinstein

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (born March 3, 1895 in Usda near Minsk ; died March 23, 1986 in New York ) was a world-famous Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi , leading halachic capacity, and de facto the highest rabbinical authority ( Gadol Hador ) in Orthodoxy during his lifetime North America.

Life

Moshe Feinstein was born according to the Jewish calendar on 7th Adar 5655 in Usda near Minsk in Belarus . Even the child and adolescent was given evidence of his outstanding specialist knowledge. As a seven-year-old he ruled large parts of the Nesikin order . When Moshe was 16 years old, Rabbi Pesach Pruskin, one of the leading teachers at the time, said: “I have a student who is taller than me.” He first studied with his father, Rabbi David Feinstein, then in Yeshivot in Slutsk , Schklou and Mszislau .

He then became a rabbi in Ljuban for sixteen years . In 1920 he married Shima Kustanovich and had three children (Fay Gittel, Shifra and David) with her.

At the end of the 1920s, the Soviet regime intensified anti-Jewish repression. After an international campaign to allow him to leave the Soviet Union, Moshe Feinstein was able to emigrate with his family to the United States in 1936 . He settled in New York City , where he remained for the rest of his life. He became head of the school of the Mesivta Tiferes Jerusalem -Jeschiba, of which an offshoot in Staten Island , New York, was later founded by him. His sons, Rabbi Reuven Feinstein and Rabbi David Feinstein, were also active in these training centers.

Moshe Feinstein was chairman of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada , as well as chairing Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America from the 1960s until his death. In addition, he was one of the leading figures in Israel's Chinuch Atzmai (training organization for children of Orthodox parents).

The Steipler Gaon, Rabbi Yonasan Steif, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv revered Moshe Feinstein and awarded him the title of "Gadol Hador" ("greatest Torah sage of the living generation") - although many of them were significantly older than him. He was held in high regard around the world and faced complex halachic questions for decision.

About 300,000 people attended his funeral, at which - among many others - the Satmar Rebbe spoke to the mourners. Rabbi Feinstein was so respected that the well-known Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach refused to speak in Feinstein's honor, saying, “Who am I that I could speak in his honor? I studied his books, I was his student. "

Rabbi Feinstein is buried in the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem next to his teacher, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, near the grave of Belzer Rebbe .

Major works

Igros Moshe (8 volumes of halachic responses )
Dibros Moshe (11 volumes)
Darash Moshe (posthumous)

Some of Feinstein's early drafts, including a commentary on the Talmud Yerushalmi, were destroyed by the Soviets.

Literature (selection)

Shimon Finkelman, Nosson Scherman: Reb Moshe: The Life and Ideals of HaGaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein . Brooklyn, NY 1986.
Ira Robinson: Because of our many sins. The contemporary Jewish world as reflected in the responsa of Moses Feinstein . 2001.
Alex J. Goldman: The greatest rabbis hall of fame . Shapolsky Publishers, 1987, pp. 352-358.

Individual evidence

↑ Alex J. Goldman: The greatest rabbis hall of fame , Shapolsky Publishers, 1987, p. 352
↑ Ira Robinson: Translating a tradition - Studies in American Jewish history, 2008, p. 242
↑ Moshe David Tendlers Preface in: Moshe Feinstein and Moshe David Tendler: Responsa of Rav Moshe Feinstein - Translation and Commentary - Care of the Critically III , Ktav Publishing House, 2001, page 29
↑ Alex J. Goldman: The greatest rabbis hall of fame . Shapolsky Publishers, 1987, p. 352.
↑ Feinstein, Rav Moshe on the website of the Orthodox Union, accessed on December 11, 2017.
↑ Note: In the first decade after the revolution, the anti-Jewish actions of the state were mainly limited to activities against religion and its practice. There were e.g. B. Campaigns against the Sabbath and other Jewish feast days, or the baking of unleavened bread (matzo). All Jewish schools, Heradim and Yeshivoth, were closed, religious publications could no longer appear, and there were some high-profile lawsuits against both secular and religious Jewish institutions and their sponsors. The arrest, condemnation and murder of clerics and the closing of synagogues on a large scale began in 1928. The blurring of the lines between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the suppression of religious forms of life began in the mid-1930s. (According to Hellmuth G. Bütow (Ed.): Country Report Soviet Union , Volume 263 of Studies on History and Politics , Federal Center for Political Education, 2nd updated edition, Bonn, 1988, p. 581)

Web links

Portrait of Feinstein at Great Leaders of our People

personal data
SURNAME	Feinstein, Moshe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	orthodox rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH	March 3, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Usda
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 1986
Place of death	New York City

[1] Alex J. Goldman: The greatest rabbis hall of fame , Shapolsky Publishers, 1987, p. 352

[2] Ira Robinson: Translating a tradition - Studies in American Jewish history, 2008, p. 242

[3] Moshe David Tendlers Preface in: Moshe Feinstein and Moshe David Tendler: Responsa of Rav Moshe Feinstein - Translation and Commentary - Care of the Critically III , Ktav Publishing House, 2001, page 29

[4] Alex J. Goldman: The greatest rabbis hall of fame . Shapolsky Publishers, 1987, p. 352.

[5] Feinstein, Rav Moshe on the website of the Orthodox Union, accessed on December 11, 2017.

[6] Note: In the first decade after the revolution, the anti-Jewish actions of the state were mainly limited to activities against religion and its practice. There were e.g. B. Campaigns against the Sabbath and other Jewish feast days, or the baking of unleavened bread (matzo). All Jewish schools, Heradim and Yeshivoth, were closed, religious publications could no longer appear, and there were some high-profile lawsuits against both secular and religious Jewish institutions and their sponsors. The arrest, condemnation and murder of clerics and the closing of synagogues on a large scale began in 1928. The blurring of the lines between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the suppression of religious forms of life began in the mid-1930s. (According to Hellmuth G. Bütow (Ed.): Country Report Soviet Union , Volume 263 of Studies on History and Politics , Federal Center for Political Education, 2nd updated edition, Bonn, 1988, p. 581)