Rav Moshe Feinstein
The Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim in New York, accepted worldwide as the leading posek of his generation and author of Igros Moshe.
Biography
Early years
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l was born on 7 Adar 5655 (1895) in Uzda, near Minsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian empire, where his father, Rav Dovid Feinstein, was the rov. Rav Dovid was a descendant of Rav Yom Tov Lipman of Kopolia, author of many seforim whose glosses on the Gemara are printed at the back of the volume, and also of the Be'er Hagolah and of Rav Avrohom, the brother of the Gra. His mother, Feige Gittel, was the daughter of Rav Yechiel, rov of Kopolia. Rav Moshe would say that being born on the seventh of Adar gave him the feeling that he was obliged to follow Moshe Rabbeinu in Torah and in middos.
Rav Dovid invested time, money and effort in his son's education. He asked the melamed, who usually taught a group of ten boys, to teach Moshe in a group of five, and paid the difference himself. Before he even began cheder, Moshe had learned the whole Chumash with his father, and by his bar mitzvah he was fluent in more than two sedorim of Shas. By eleven he had finished Nashim and Nezikin.
It is told that once, when his uncle Rav Eliyohu Pruzhiner visited, the eleven-year-old Moshe entered the room and his uncle rose to his full height, saying, "For a boy who knows two sedorim, one must stand up." Rav Dovid sent the boy to bring something for the guest to eat. Rav Moshe later recalled that as he left the room he heard his father tell his uncle, "Do you want to ruin my son and turn him into a baal gaavah, chas vesholom?" Those words stayed with him, and he held on to their lesson of humility for the rest of his life.
Rav Moshe also recounted that at the age of eight he was playing chess with a friend when he realized he was concentrating so deeply that the game had become an effort rather than a rest. If it took so much effort, he reasoned, those powers of concentration were better used for Torah, and he never played chess again. He added that, being short, he feared playing with boys his own age who were taller and stronger, and he saw this as hashgocha protis, since it left him more time to delve into Torah.
Yeshiva years and his first posts
At twelve he joined the yeshiva of Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer in Slutzk, where he also learned under Rav Pesach Pruskin. When Rav Pesach opened his own yeshiva in Shklov, Rav Moshe went with him, and he recalled that Rav Isser Zalman himself attended the opening ceremony. He also learned in the yeshiva of Amstislav. By the age of sixteen he had completed Shas and Shulchan Aruch.
Around this time he was called up for the army. Rav Moshe travelled with his father to the Chofetz Chaim in Homil to ask for a bracha. The Chofetz Chaim told him, "Heaven had originally decreed that you join the army, but since you took upon yourself wholeheartedly the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the government has been removed from you." Rav Moshe was never conscripted.
In 5676 (1916) he was appointed rov in Uzda, in order to avoid army service. Two years later, when the laws changed, he returned to his father in Strobin. From 5681 (1921) to 5696 (1936) he served as rov of Lyuban, near Minsk.
Torah and leadership in America
Under increasing pressure from the Soviet regime, Rav Moshe decided that Lyuban was no place to raise his children in the ways of Torah. He travelled to Riga, where he obtained visas for America, and the family reached New York. A distinguished delegation met him as the ship docked at Ellis Island. He was immediately offered positions as maggid shiur in a number of yeshivos but refused them all. In 5697 (1937) he became a lecturer in Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim on the Lower East Side, and after a year he became its Rosh Yeshiva. He later opened a branch of the yeshiva in Staten Island.
From that position he spread Torah for the rest of his life, and his shiurim are printed in his sefer Dibros Moshe. Apart from the yeshiva, Rav Moshe took no official rabbinical post. Yet Jews from all over the world turned to him, and no matter in Torah and halacha was left unbrought to him. He was president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, and from the 1960s until his passing he chaired the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel of America. He also took an active part in the leadership of Chinuch Atzmai in Eretz Yisroel.
He wrote about two thousand teshuvos on every kind of question touching Jewish life, and the bulk of them were published in the eight volumes of his Igros Moshe. Anyone could approach him at any time with any problem. He was known to all Jews, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, chassidim and misnagdim, rabbonim, roshei yeshiva and Rebbes alike, simply as "Reb Moshe." Whether the question was a complicated halachic matter such as permitting an agunah to remarry, or a private instruction for a yeshiva bochur or an avreich, the address on the East Side was where people turned.
The gedolei haTorah held him in awe, among them Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, Rav Yonoson Steif, Rav Elya Lopian, Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, even though several of them were far older than he. It is told that Rav Yonoson Steif of Budapest would put on his hat out of respect whenever he spoke to Rav Moshe on the telephone. Rav Moshe also signed the historic 1979 Kol Koreh on behalf of the Rav Meir Baal Haneis charity fund, together with Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, the Steipler, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Elazar Simcha Wasserman, Rav Dovid Povarsky, Rav Yechiel Michel Feinstein, Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, Rav Shmuel Birnbaum and many others, for he had great concern for the families of Eretz Yisroel.
Middos and humility
Rav Moshe's humility kept him from visiting Eretz Yisroel for many years. When he came to the Holy Land in 5724 (1964), thousands flocked to his door, individuals with private sheilos, rabbonim with halachic questions that were stirring the rabbinic world, and the brokenhearted who came to pour out their troubles, twenty-four hours a day. On his return to New York he was heard to say, "To receive all the people who wanted to see me was impossible, yet who am I to turn away a Jew? I can no longer go on a short-term visit to Eretz Yisroel." For this reason he did not even attend the wedding of one of his grandchildren in Yerushalayim.
His family related that after he ruled permissively on a well-known sheilo, some rabbonim disagreed, as can happen in golus. A follower of one of them, a man of poor middos, stood up publicly against the psak and insulted Rav Moshe himself. True to the Torah's command not to fear any man, Rav Moshe did not move from his daas Torah. Not long afterward this same man was in trouble with the American authorities and turned to Rav Moshe, asking for a letter to the judge. What followed is told in the story below.
He could not bear to hurt another person's feelings, even at his own cost. Near the end of his life he said, "As far as I know, to the furthest extent of my memory, I never harmed anyone, nor did I ever hurt a person's feelings."
Later years and passing
Toward the end of his life, when the doctors wanted to insert a pacemaker, Rav Moshe agreed only after making sure there was no halachic problem. He wanted to be certain that the procedure would not cause the kind of blemish that would make him unfit to sit on the Sanhedrin should Moshiach come.
Rav Moshe was niftar on the night of Taanis Esther, 13 Adar II 5746 (23 March 1986). The levaya the next morning in New York City was unlike any the city had seen, with about one hundred and fifty thousand people accompanying him, and the American flag on the East Side was flown at half-mast. His aron was brought to Eretz Yisroel, and on Shushan Purim hundreds of thousands of Jews from every background, estimated at three hundred thousand, accompanied the levaya in Yerushalayim, said to be the largest Jewish funeral in a millennium. The foremost rabbonim eulogized him in Eretz Yisroel and in America and tearfully spoke of a massive loss to the generation.
Rav Moshe is buried on Har Hamenuchos, close to the Gaon of Tchebin and next to the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Aharon Rokeach, in the area near his Rebbe, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, his colleague Rav Aharon Kotler and his son-in-law Rav Moshe Shisgal.
Legacy
Rav Moshe was one of the last of the great leaders and sages from Europe, a living link to the Torah greatness that existed before the destruction of the Jewish communities in World War II. He was accepted worldwide as the leading halachic authority of his time, and many regarded him as the supreme rabbinic authority for Orthodox Jewry in North America.
His teshuvos in Igros Moshe, his Torah discussions in Dibros Moshe and his example of selfless service to every Jew continue to guide klal Yisroel.
Stories
Rav Moshe and the Pnei Menachem
It is told that when the Pnei Menachem of Ger first visited America, he was to be the guest of honor at an Agudah convention, and Rav Moshe was to introduce him. Rav Moshe was troubled. An ordinary introduction would not do for the son of the Imrei Emes and brother of the Beis Yisroel, yet he did not know the Pnei Menachem personally. Though his schedule was full, one hour was set aside for the two to meet beforehand.
That short meeting stretched on for many hours. When Rav Moshe came out, he said to those close to him that he could hardly believe what he had heard, that this man knew the entire Torah, truly all of it. At the convention Rav Moshe spoke of the Pnei Menachem in glowing terms, telling the audience that he knew those praises to be true because he had experienced them himself.
Some years afterwards, the Pnei Menachem's son, Rav Yehuda Aryeh, became son-in-law to the Ungvar Rav in America, known as the Mishne Halochos. The Pnei Menachem wanted him examined for semicha by the gedolim and rabbonim there, and he named Rav Moshe first. At the door, Rav Moshe's family explained that because of his advanced age and frailty, the Godol Hador no longer examined anyone. Rav Moshe overheard and agreed with them, but asked who the young man was and whose son he was. When he heard the Pnei Menachem's name, he said that he would make a special exception for the son of such a Ga'on Olom. He examined him and gave him semicha.
Hachnosas Kalla
Rav Elimelech Biderman related that before he became a Rebbe, Rav Mordechai of Zvhil needed twenty-six thousand dollars for a coming chasuna. He asked the director of Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, where he learned, for the addresses of wealthy American donors so he could write to them. The director wanted those donors' support for the yeshiva, so he handed over only old addresses of people who had not given for a long time.
His wife told him that the list was surely of people with no money left, but Rav Mordechai said he was simply doing hishtadlus. "Then why write to all of them?" she answered. "Send one letter, and that will be your hishtadlus." He agreed, sent one letter, and soon received an envelope holding a check for the full twenty-six thousand dollars. When he thanked the director, the director was stunned and called the donor to ask how he had money to give a talmid, yet had stopped supporting the yeshiva.
The man explained that he had no money. His daughter, a kalla, had learned after her engagement that she was ill, and they had asked Rav Moshe Feinstein whether they had to tell the chosson's family. After asking about the illness, Rav Moshe ruled that they need not, and advised that if she had savings of her own, she should give them for hachnosas kalla. In the merit of helping another kalla reach the chuppa, she too would reach hers. At that very moment Rav Mordechai's letter arrived. She emptied her account and sent it.
A Letter for His Adversary
His family related that when Rav Moshe's ruling on a well-known sheilo was publicly attacked, one of the critics, a man of poor middos, insulted him personally. Rav Moshe stayed firm in his psak.
Some time later, the man was caught by the American authorities for a minor offence and feared a harsh sentence. He came to Rav Moshe, not to apologize, but to ask for a letter to the judge, since even non-Jews respected the Rav's word. Rav Moshe at once took out paper and pen and wrote a warm letter that read as if it were about a close friend, and handed it over.
His astonished family asked how he could help so wholeheartedly someone who had so recently shamed him. Rav Moshe was not working on his middos; he acted naturally and did not understand their surprise. "If I am in a position to help this man," he said, "how can I refuse to extend a helping hand to a fellow Jew in need?"
The Cook in Lyuban
His sister, Rebbetzin Chanah, related that while Rav Moshe was rov in Lyuban, before he married, a woman was appointed to cook for him. Her food was practically inedible, but embarrassing a Jewish woman was unthinkable to him, and he finished every meal to the last crumb. Thinking the rov enjoyed it, the cook served larger portions, and he finished those too.
One day Chanah visited and joined him for lunch. She barely tasted the food and nearly gagged. "How could you eat such disgusting food?" she asked. His answer was simple. "I force myself in order to avoid embarrassing the cook." He later told her she had done him a great favor that day by stuffing the food into her bag, so that for once he did not have to eat it.
On another occasion a talmid drove him home. When Rav Moshe stepped out of the car, the talmid shut the door on his hand. The pain was unbearable, but Rav Moshe held himself back so the talmid would not be mortified.
Seforim
- Igros Moshe: His halachic responsa, published in eight volumes, drawn from about two thousand teshuvos written for Jews around the world.
- Dibros Moshe: His shiurim and in-depth discussions on the Gemara, published in several volumes.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Dovid Feinstein (his father), Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Pesach Pruskin
Children: Rav Moshe Shisgal (son-in-law)
Also on 13 Adar II
All hilulos on 13 Adar II ›Historical sources
- HaMevaser HaTorani, Adar 5771 (Rav Yaakov Heizler)
- Wellsprings, Parshas Terumah (Rav Boruch Twerski)
- chareidi.org, Parshas Tetzaveh features, archives 5761