Elazar Shach


Elazar Menachem Man Shach was a leading Lithuanian-Jewish Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. He also served as one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, along with Rabbis Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky.
Due to his differences with the Hasidic leadership of the Agudat Yisrael in 1984, he allied with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who had founded the Shas party. Later, in 1988, Shach sharply criticized Ovadia Yosef, saying that, "Sepharadim are not yet ready for leadership positions", and subsequently founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews in the Israeli Knesset.

Life in Europe

Elazar Menachem Man Shach was born in Vabalninkas, 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 Osher Nisan Levitan, later became an important figure in the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States. Elazar was an illui.
In 1909, at the age of 11, Shach went to study at the Ponevezh Yeshiva, which at the time was located in the city of Panevėžys, Lithuania, and was headed by Rabbi Isaac Jacob Rabinowitz, known as Rav Itzele Ponovezer.
In 1913, Shach started studying in Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael.
When World War I began in 1914, many of the Slabodka yeshiva students were dispersed across Europe. Shach initially returned to his family, but then began traveling across Lithuania from town to town, sleeping and eating wherever he could, while continuing to study Torah. In 1915, following the advice of Rabbi Yechezkel Bernstein, Shach traveled to Slutsk to study at the yeshiva there. It was in Slutsk that he met Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, and this was the beginning of a close life-long relationship between the two. Shach also met Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horwitz, who had come to visit the yeshiva in order to introduce its students to the study of mussar. Around this time, he also met for the first time Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, as Feinstein would often visit Meltzer at his house in Slutsk. In 1921, as a result of regional political changes, the Slutsk yeshiva split up. Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer stayed in the city of Slutsk, while Meltzer's son-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, took his students and started a yeshiva in the town of Kletsk. Shach joined Kotler in Kletsk, and subsequently was appointed by Kotler as a maggid shiur in the yeshiva.
In 1923, Shach married Meltzer's niece, Guttel Gilmovski. After the wedding, Shach and his wife moved to Mir, Belarus, the residence of his father-in-law. After spending some time in the city of Mir, Shach moved back to Kletsk to join the yeshiva again. In 1925, his wife's uncle, Rabbi Meltzer, moved to Israel, and it was at this point that Shach became significantly more involved in the daily running of the yeshiva. It was around this time that Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein joined the yeshiva to become its mashgiach ruchani, and thus began a life-long relationship of mutual respect between Shach and Levenstein.
After the passing of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, head of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski sent the yeshivah's administrators a letter, recommending Shach for the position. After delivering a discourse at the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, Shach traveled to Vilna to consult with Grodzinski about the wisdom of taking on the new position, and upon hearing the various aspects of the question, Grodzinski advised Shach to turn down the offer.
In 1934, Shach was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Novardok yeshiva. This came about as a result of the recommendation of Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz to one of the yeshiva's founders, Rabbi Bentzion Brook. During this time in Shach's life, the rest of his family stayed in Kletsk, while he stayed in the Novardok yeshiva for extended periods of time. After approximately two years, Shach left the yeshiva, saying that "this is not the place for me for many reasons".

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. Aharon Kotler escaped to the United States, traveling across Siberia and arriving in the United States during the war. In 1939, Shach first went to Vilna, where he stayed with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Later that year, both Shach's mother and his eldest daughter fell ill, and died. In early 1940, the Shach family decided to leave Lithuania. Shach's maternal uncle, Rabbi Aron Levitan, had helped Kotler get emigration visas to the United States, but Shach, after consulting with Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik and Rabbi Grodzinski, decided instead to go to Palestine, where Meltzer was serving as Rosh Yeshiva at Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Shach would later serve as the Rosh Yeshiva there as well. His uncle helped him and his family get immigration certificates, and took them in after they arrived at his doorstep in a destitute condition.
Several years after the re-establishment of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Shach was asked by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman to be one of its deans. Shach first discussed the proposal with Rabbi Soloveitchik, and was encouraged by the latter to take the position. Shach served in that capacity from 1954 until his death. At this yeshiva, Shach delivered a lecture on the Talmud every Tuesday, and also occasionally gave other classes to the student body of the yeshiva.

Rabbinical career

Shach received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, and served as chairman of Chinuch Atzmai and Va'ad HaYeshivos. In the mid-1960s, Shach was offered a position to serve as a senior rosh hayeshiva at Yeshiva University in New York, to which he politely declined. From 1970 until his death, Shach was generally recognized by Lithuanian Haredim and some other Haredi circles as the Gadol Ha-Dor. During his lifetime, Shach was a revered spiritual mentor of more than 100,000 Orthodox Jews, and was credited by many with promoting the concept of the "society of learners" in the post-war Haredi world. Under his aegis, the phenomenon of Haredi men studying the Talmud in yeshivas and kollels full-time gained popularity.
Although this type of set-up was unprecedented in Jewish history, it became the norm in some Haredi communities in Israel and the United States, with some financial backing and donations from Haredi communities, as well as subsidies to young families with many children from the Israeli government.

Political life

For Shach, battling secularism and Zionism was not enough. During the years of his leadership, he also waged bitter wars against anybody he suspected of deviation from the classical Haredi path. At the behest of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Shach joined the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. When Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin died in 1966, Shach became president of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, before later resigning from the Moetzes after the other leading rabbis refused to follow him. Shach wrote strongly in support of every observant citizen voting. He felt that a vote not cast for the right party or candidate was effectively a vote for the wrong party and candidate. This theme is consistent in his writings from the time that the State of Israel was established.
and Chaim Kanievsky are seated to his left.
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 the Hasidic-controlled Agudat Yisrael. While initially, Shas was largely under the aegis of Shach, Ovadia Yosef gradually exerted control over the party, culminating in Shas' decision to support the Labor party in the 13th Knesset in 1992.
On the eve of the November 1988 election, Shach officially broke away from Agudat Israel in protest at Hamodia publishing, as paid advertisements, a series of articles based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Shach criticized Schneerson for his presumed messianic aspirations. Shach wanted the Aguda party to oppose Lubavitch; however, all but one of the Hasidic groups within the party refused to back him. Shach and his followers then formed the Degel HaTorah party to represent the non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredim.
Following a personal visit by Shach to the halachic decisors and leading rabbis, Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, in Jerusalem to seek their support for the new party, they agreed to lend support to the new party. Schneerson's followers mobilized to support the Agudat Yisrael party. In the end, Agudat Yisrael secured nearly three times the number of votes it had in 1984, and increased its Knesset representation from two seats to five, while Degel HaTorah only picked up two seats.
After the bitter contest in the 1988 elections, Degel HaTorah conceded and agreed to work together with Agudat Yisrael. They combined forces in the 1992 elections, under the name of United Torah Judaism Yahadut HaTorah HaMeukhedet in Hebrew, an agreement which has continued to the present.
In a speech delivered prior to the 1992 elections, Shach said that Sephardim were still not fit for leadership, and aroused great anger among Sephardi voters. Following the elections, Shach instructed Shas not to join the government, while Ovadia Yosef instructed them to join - this precipitated an open rift between the parties. Shach then declared that Shas had removed itself from the Jewish community when it joined the wicked...
Around 1995, Shach's political activity diminished, following deterioration in his health, before later ceasing altogether. After that, the two main leaders of the Degel HaTorah party were Rabbis Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and continued by Aharon Leib Shteinman.
Shach was deeply opposed to Zionism, both secular and religious. He was fiercely dismissive of secular Israelis and their culture. For example, during a 1990 speech, he lambasted secular 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". Labor Party politician Yossi Beilin said Shach's speech had set back relations between religious and secular Israelis by decades.
In 1985, four years after the Labor Party supported a liberalized abortion law, Shach refused to meet with Shimon Peres, since he would not even speak with a "murderer of fetuses".
In Haaretz, Shahar Ilan described him as "an ideologue" and "a zealot who repeatedly led his followers into ideological battles".
Shach never seemed concerned over the discord his harsh statements might cause, saying that, "There is no need to worry about machlokes , because if it is done for the sake of Heaven, in the end, it will endure...one is obligated to be a baal-machlokes . It is no feat to be in agreement with everybody!"
Shach was also critical of democracy, once referring to it as a "cancer", adding that, "Only the sacred Torah is the true democracy."

Position on serving in the Israeli Army

In May 1998, following talk of a political compromise which would allow Haredim to perform national service by guarding holy places, Shach told his followers in a public statement that it is forbidden to serve in the army, and that "it is necessary to die for this". This is a case, Shach said, in which, halachically, one must "be killed, rather than transgress". This position was expressed in large ads placed in all three of Israel's daily newspapers on May 22, 1998. Shach is quoted as saying that, "Any yeshiva student who cheats the authorities and uses the exemption from service for anything other than real engagement in Torah study is a 'rodef' ", and that "those who are not learning jeopardize the position of those who are learning as they should".

Position on territorial compromise

Shach supported the withdrawal from land under Israeli control, basing it upon the Halakhic principle of Pikuach Nefesh, in which the preservation of lives takes precedence over nearly all other obligations in the Torah, including those pertaining to the sanctity of land, though Shach's position was later questioned by Rabbi Shmuel Tuvia Stern, who wondered why Shach hadn't provided halachic references supporting his opinion.
Shach also criticized Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "a blatant attempt to provoke the international community", and called on Haredi Jews to avoid moving to such communities.
Shach's often said that for true peace, it was "permitted and necessary to compromise on even half of the Land of Israel". When Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner was asked to support this position, he refused, instead stating that, "agreement to other-than-biblical borders was tantamount to denial of the entire Torah".

Opposition to Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Chabad

Shach launched a number of public attacks against the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from the 1970s through Schneerson's death in 1994.
He accused Schneerson's followers of false Messianism, and Schneerson of fomenting a cult of crypto-messianism around himself. He objected to Schneerson's call for "demanding" the Messiah's appearance. When some of Schneerson's followers proclaimed him the Messiah, Shach called for a complete boycott of Chabad, its institutions and projects by its constituents. In 1988, Shach explicitly denounced Schneerson as a meshiach sheker. Shach also compared Chabad and Schneerson to the followers of the 17th century false messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
Pointing to a statement by Schneerson that a rebbe is "the Essence and Being clothed a body", Shach described this as nothing short of idolatry. His followers refused to eat meat slaughtered by Lubavitch shochetim, or to recognize Chabad Hasidim as adherents of authentic Judaism. Shach once described Schneerson as "the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy".
Despite this, Shach explained that he did not hold personal animosity toward Schneerson. When Schneerson became sick, Shach prayed for his recovery by reciting chapters from the Book of Psalms, explaining: "My battle is against his erroneous approach, against the movement, but not against the people in any personal way. I pray for the Rebbe's recovery and simultaneously, also pray that he abandon his invalid way."
In addition to Shach's objections to certain Chabad members proclaiming Schneerson to be the Messiah, he also argued against the Chabad position on many other issues. Schneerson, citing case law in the Shulchan Aruch, strongly opposed both peace talks with the Palestinians and relinquishing territory to them under any circumstances, while Shach supported the "land for peace" approach.

Opposition to other Orthodox rabbis and groups

In addition to his criticism of Schneerson, Shach attacked the following rabbis:
Joseph B. Soloveitchik
In a lengthy attack on Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Yeshiva University, Shach accused him of writing "things that are forbidden to hear", as well as of "...endangering the survival of Torah-true Judaism by indoctrinating the masses with actual words of heresy".
The Gerer Rebbe
Shach resigned from the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah following tensions between him and the Gerer Rebbe, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter. In the Eleventh Knesset elections of 1984, Shach had already told his supporters to vote for Shas instead of Agudat Yisrael. Some perceived the schism as the reemergence of the dissent between Hasidim and Mitnagdim, as Shach represented the Lithuanian Torah world, while the Gerer Rebbe was among the most important Hasidic Rebbes and represented the most significant Hasidic court in Agudat Yisrael. However, it would not be accurate to base the entire conflict on a renewal of the historic dispute between Hasidim and Mitnagdim which began in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
Adin Steinsaltz
Adin Steinsaltz was likewise accused of heresy by Shach, who, in a letter written September 10, 1988, wrote that "... and similarly, all his other works contain heresy. It is forbidden to debate with Steinsaltz, because, as a heretic, all the debates will only cause him to degenerate more. He is not a genuine person, and everyone is obliged to distance themselves from him. This is the duty of the hour. It will generate merit for the forthcoming Day of Judgement."
In the summer of 1989, a group of rabbis, including Shach, placed a ban on three of Steinsaltz's books.
The Modern Orthodox and Yeshiva University
Shach wrote that Yeshiva University type institutions are an entirely negative phenomenon posing a threat to the very endurance of authentic Judaism. Shach said that these modern conceptions were "an absolute disaster, causing the destruction of our Holy Torah. Even the so-called 'Touro College' in the USA is a terrible disaster, a ' churban ha-das '..."
Shach further writes that the success of those people who were able to achieve greatness in Torah despite their involvement in secular studies are "ma'aseh satan", for the existence of such role models will entice others to follow suit, only to be doomed.
In a conversation that he had with an American rabbi in the 1980s, Shach stated, "The Americans think that I am too controversial and divisive. But in a time when no one else is willing to speak up on behalf of our true tradition, I feel myself impelled to do so."

Position regarding Hasidim and Hasidism in general

Shach wrote that he was not at all opposed to Hasidim and Hasidism ; he said he recognized them as "yera'im" and "shlaymim", and full of Torah and Mitzvos and fear of heaven.
Regarding his opposition to the present-day Chabad movement, someone mentioned to Shach that, "After 120 years, when you go to Heaven, you will merit a warm handshake from the Vilna Gaon." Shach responded, "The Vilna Gaon will shake my hand!? The Baal HaTanya will be the one to shake my hand!"
On several occasions, Shach said to his students that it pained him deep inside over the sheim ra he had acquired as a "hater of Hasidim". This was "total sheker , he said resolutely. "We are fighting against secularism in the yeshivas. Today, besiyata deShmaya , people are learning Torah in both Hasidic and Lithuanian yeshivos. In my view, there is no difference between them; all of them are important and dear to me. In fact, go ahead, and ask your Hasidic friends with us at Ponevezh if I distinguish between Hasidic and Lithuanian bochurim ."

Support from Haredi leaders

In 1982, the honor and standing of Rabbi Shach were challenged by various segments of the Orthodox press. A group of leading rabbis, including Rabbis, decided that a public protest for the honor of Shach was necessary. One protest was held at Kaminetz Yeshiva in New York, and another at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore.

Death and funeral

Shach died on November 2, 2001, and was buried in Bnai Brak. He was almost 103 years of age, having been born on January 1, 1899. Approximately 200,000 people attended Shach's funeral, and after his death, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon noted appreciation for his work, saying, "There is no doubt that we have lost an important person who made his mark over many years."

Family

Rav Shach's wife, Guttel Schach, died in 1969 from complications connected to diabetes.
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, and had nine children. Ephraim was unsatisfied with the Haredi lifestyle, and eventually joined the Religious Zionist camp. Ephraim served in the Israel Defense Forces, received a doctorate in history and philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, and worked as a supervisor for the Israel Ministry of Education. He married Tamara Yarlicht-Kowalsky, and had two children. He died October 17, 2011, at the age of 81.

Works