Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach

Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach (1883 – 26 September 1954) was a haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which he helped found in 1906. He was the father of the posek (decider of Jewish legal issues) Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.

Rabbi
Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach
Personal
Born
Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach

1883
Died26 September 1954
ReligionJudaism
SpouseTzivia Porush
ChildrenShlomo Zalman
Avraham Dov
Eliezer
Refoel Dovid
Leah (wife of Shalom Schwadron)
Malka
Rochel
Parent
  • Avraham Dov Auerbach (father)
PositionRosh yeshiva
YeshivaShaar Hashamayim Yeshiva
Began1906
Ended1954
BuriedHar HaMenuchot
ResidenceJerusalem

Family edit

His father was Avraham Dov Auerbach, the rebbe of Chernowitz in Poland.[1]

Auerbach married Tzivya, the daughter of Shlomo Zalman Porush, a rabbi who founded the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sha'arei Hesed.[2] Their first son, the authority on Jewish law Shlomo Zalman Auerbach,[3] was the first child born in Sha'arei Hesed.[4] The family lived in poverty.[5]

He wrote a Torah commentary called Chacham Lev.[6]

He died on 26 September 1954 (28 Elul 5714), a month after having a heart attack.[6]

 
Graves of Auerbach (left), his wife Tzivia (center), and son Eliezer (right).

Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva edit

Auerbach and his friend Shimon Tzvi Horowitz opened a yeshiva for the study of the kabbalah as interpreted by the 16th century rabbi Isaac Luria[6] in the Old City of Jerusalem, with a Talmud Torah, a yeshiva ketana, a yeshiva gedola, and a kollel for married students.[6][7]

Auerbach was rosh yeshiva of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva from 1906 until his death in 1954 and was succeeded in the post by two of his sons, first Eliezer Auerbach was rosh yeshiva and then Refoel Dovid Auerbach. His eldest son, Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, served as president of the yeshiva; after his death, his son, Shmuel Auerbach, succeeded him.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ Schwartz (1996), p. 34.
  2. ^ Schwartz (1996), pp. 32–33.
  3. ^ Schwartz (1996), p. 26.
  4. ^ Sofer, D. "Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l". Yated Ne'eman (United States). Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  5. ^ Lazewnik (2000), pp. 43 & 48.
  6. ^ a b c d e Rossoff, Dovid (2005). קדושים אשר בארץ: קברי צדיקים בירושלים ובני ברק [The Holy Ones in the Earth: Graves of the Righteous in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak] (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Machon Otzar HaTorah. p. 425.
  7. ^ Rossoff, Dovid (2005). קדושים אשר בארץ: קברי צדיקים בירושלים ובני ברק [The Holy Ones in the Earth: Graves of the Righteous in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak] (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Machon Otzar HaTorah. p. 425.

Sources edit

Further reading edit

  • Meir, Jonatan. "The Imagined Decline of Kabbalah: The Kabbalistic Yeshiva Sha'ar ha-Shamayim and Kabbalah in Jerusalem in the Beginning of the Twentieth Century" in Kabbalah and Modernity. Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad, eds. Brill: Leiden & Boston, 2010, pp. 197–220.