Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman

Early years

Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman zt"l was born in Cheshvan 5674 (1913), the third child of Rav Noach Tzvi and Gittel Feiga Steinman. The family name was spelled Steiman and was later changed to Steinman. He was named for two ancestors, Reb Aharon and Reb Yehuda Leib.

The family lived in Brisk, then part of the Russian Empire, where his father was a melamed in the local Talmud Torah and in charge of the city's eiruv. Because of the war, the family was in Kamenitz when Rav Aharon Leib was born, and they stayed there through the years of the First World War at the home of his grandfather, Reb Moshe Eliyahu Gibornowski.

In Brisk they lived next door to the Brisker Rav, Rav Yitzchok Ze'ev Soloveitchik. His daughter, Rebbetzin Lifsha Feinstein, said that Reb Noach Tzvi was devoted to her father and so merited a son like this. Every month, he brought his son to the Brisker Rav for a farher (an oral examination in his learning).

His teachers and friends

His greatness was recognized from his youth. When he was only twelve, it was said in the Torah world that Brisk had a new Chofetz Chaim in the making. He learned in Yeshivas Toras Chessed in Brisk, headed by Rav Moshe Sokolovsky, author of Imrei Moshe, and attended the shiurim of the Brisker Rav. He also learned for a time in Kletzk under Rav Aharon Kotler.

From his bar mitzvah, he learned every day with the Brisker Rav's son, Rav Yoshe Ber, who was a few years younger. Rav Steinman would recall those years, saying that Reb Yoshe Ber had the notes of his grandfather, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, and that it was mamash a delight to learn from them. He also formed a close friendship with Reb Moishe Soloveitchik, a grandson of Rav Chaim, that lasted all their lives.

Switzerland and Eretz Yisroel

In 1937, when he reached draft age, he was subject to the Polish draft, because Brisk had come under the newly established Polish state after the First World War. He and Reb Moishe tried to avoid the draft by starving themselves, but the draft officer declared them fit to serve. The two then fled with other bochurim from Brisk to Switzerland.

Classified as war refugees, the two friends were interned at the Schonenberg camp near Basel, where non-citizens had to work building roads. Rav Steinman was slight and small, so he was excused from physical labor and given clerical work. A few months later both were named maggidei shiur at Yeshivas Etz Chaim in Montreux, a post that exempted them from military service.

Of his entire family, he alone lived through the war. In 5704 (1944), still in Switzerland, he married Rebbetzin Tamar (Tema) Kornfeld, whose father was Rav Shammai Shraga Kornfeld of Antwerp. Tamar had been sent from Poland to Switzerland for treatment of a lung condition, and when the war broke out she too became a refugee. They had four children. She passed away in 2002.

Rosh yeshiva and leader of Torah Jewry

Soon afterwards the family came to Eretz Yisroel. On the advice of the Chazon Ish, Rav Steinman was appointed rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Kfar Saba, and the family settled nearby, where the boys attended a cheder in Petach Tikva. In time they moved to Bnei Brak, where the Ponevezer Rav, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, appointed him rosh kollel of the Ponevez Kollel.

In 1955 the Ponevezer Rav opened the yeshivah ketanah of Ponevez, called Ponevez LeTze'irim, and asked Rav Steinman to serve as rosh yeshiva together with Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz. In 1998 he gave up his regular shiur, though he remained rosh yeshiva. His son-in-law, Rav Zev Berlin, heads Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov, where Rav Steinman also held the title of rosh yeshiva.

Over the years he came to be seen as a leader of Torah Jewry, and was a leading member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah. When Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv passed away in 2012, Rav Steinman came to be seen by most as the Gadol HaDor, the leader of the Lithuanian yeshiva world. Rav Elazar Shach, founder of Degel HaTorah, would at times send people who consulted him to Rav Steinman. He was a leader of Degel HaTorah in the political arena as well, with great influence in the United Torah Judaism coalition, an alliance of Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel. He was close with the Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Aryeh Alter, a major supporter of Agudas Yisroel.

Many people came for his counsel and brachos to his humble home in Bnei Brak, and he was known for his hanhagos and his leadership of the chareidi world.

He lived very simply. The apartment at 5 Chazon Ish Street had little furniture and no fresh paint for many years, and until 2014 he slept on the thin mattress given to him by the Jewish Agency when he arrived in Eretz Yisroel in the early 1950s.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Steinman first published his main works on Gemara anonymously, under the name Ayeles Hashachar. The name hints at the first letters of his own name and of his wife's name, Tamar (Aharon Yehuda Leib Tamar spells AYeLeT), and also recalls the morning star of Tehillim 22. His works cover the five chumashim and many masechtos.

He also wrote a widely read series of kuntresim on Torah subjects such as emunah, chinuch and hashgachah. They grew out of shiurim he started in 1994 for the students of the Ponevez Kollel, given in his home, and shmuessen he began in 1978 for the students of Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov. Each ran between 24 and 100 pages and sold out quickly. Israel Bookshop published an English translation of many of them in 2013 as Leading with Love.

When he was in his nineties, he undertook trips to strengthen Torah communities abroad. In 2005 he visited cities in North America, including Brooklyn and Passaic, where he met many American rabbonim, among them Rav Aharon Schechter of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. On Lag BaOmer 2006 he spoke in Los Angeles to a gathering of over five thousand people. He had planned to travel to Montreal with the Gerrer Rebbe in May 2006, but they delayed the trip to avoid protests by Neturei Karta. After Montreal, the Gerrer Rebbe went on to New York and returned to Yerushalayim, while Rav Steinman continued to South America, where he visited Mexico City and Buenos Aires. He traveled to France and then England in May 2007, speaking to large crowds in Manchester and Gateshead. Odessa, Berlin and Gibraltar followed in June 2010, and in 2012 he went to Paris to speak to the French Jewish community.

Later years and passing

Rav Steinman passed away in Bnei Brak on 24 Kislev 5778 (December 12, 2017). His passing was a loss to all of Klal Yisroel, as he was one of the last links to previous generations.

He left a will, first written in 5714 after three great rabbonim had passed away within a short time, and revised on 6 Tishrei 5740 with an addition on 24 Cheshvan 5743. He asked that no eulogies be given for him, that no articles or pictures about him be printed and no history of his life written, and that no announcements be made by loudspeaker or radio, saying that ten people at the funeral were enough. He asked that burial not be delayed. He asked that his gravestone carry no titles, only the words Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib son of Rav Noach Tzvi Steinman, and that it be the simplest and cheapest, and that no money be spent on a plot in an expensive cemetery. He asked that he not be called a tzaddik or a yirei Shomayim, so that he would not be judged harshly in the world of truth. He asked that anyone who wished to do him good learn one mishnah every day for twelve months, and that girls recite ten chapters of Tehillim every day. He asked forgiveness from anyone whose honor he had hurt, and from anyone to whom he owed money that was unknown to him. He advised against naming children after him, though he did not forbid it.