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Telegraph UK Covers Passing Of Hagon HaRav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg ZATZAL


The following is the Telegraph UK article abot the passing of Hagon HaRav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg ZATZAL. It is interesting to note, that this is the second time in the past week that the secular media covered the passing of a Gadol. Last week YWN reported that the NY Times covered the Petira of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe ZATZAL.

The following is the exact article, and not edited in anyway:

Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, who has died in Jerusalem aged 101, was one of the most important ultra-Orthodox leaders of the post-war era – and one of the few remaining Torah scholars to have received an education in the greatest religious seminaries of pre-Holocaust eastern Europe.

He was born on October 1 1910 in Ostrov, Poland, but moved in 1919 to New York’s Lower East Side, where he was educated at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School. Subsequently, he attended the Beis Medrash Le Rabbonim Yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Rabbi Elchanan Theological Seminary in New York.

Scheinberg’s outstanding scholarship soon attracted the attention of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman – the key figure in American Orthodoxy of the early 20th century – who rapidly commended the 16-year-old prodigy to his family as a potential spouse for his 12-year-old daughter Bessie.

The couple married five years later, with Scheinberg simultaneously receiving his first Semichah (rabbinical ordination) under the marital canopy. Their union lasted 81 years, until her death in 2009.

Scheinberg was dispatched by his father-in-law to learn at the Mir Yeshiva in eastern Poland, the most prestigious of such seminaries, located in an impoverished small town without running water or pavements. He also studied at the Kaminetz Yeshiva, where he took another Semichah.

Scheinberg soon sought out Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, otherwise known as the “Chofetz Chaim” (1838-1933), the leading figure in the Yeshiva world at the time. When the Chofetz Chaim was informed that the young scholar had come from America for a blessing, he replied: “Moses came all the way from Heaven to teach the Yidden [Jews] Torah. What’s the big deal about coming from America to Europe?” The Chofetz Chaim nonetheless duly bestowed the benediction.

Scheinberg returned to America in 1935 to teach in the Yeshivah Chofetz Chaim in New York, latterly founding his own Yeshivah, Torah Or (“Torah Light”). In 1965, long before it became fashionable, he was the first of the American Torah heavyweights to relocate his seminary to Israel, moving to Kiryat Mattersdorf in Jerusalem: when the Six Day War broke out, many Yeshivah students left for home, but all of Scheinberg’s stayed on.

Scheinberg was unique amongst the Gedolei Israel (great Torah sages of Israel) in that English was his native tongue. He thus became the first port of call for many Anglo-Saxon immigrants, who found it easier to raise their concerns over points of complex Jewish religious law with him than with any of the other Torah scholars of comparable seniority (who were either Yiddish or Hebrew speakers).

Although Scheinberg was a man of great spirituality – he wore 150 Tallesim, or prayer shawls, for much of his life, making him appear much bulkier than he actually was – he nevertheless remained very accessible to Jews at any level of learning or holiness. His American heritage also made him particularly sensitive to the needs of Orthodox women: one of his most important works was Heart to Heart Talks: Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg talks to women (2000). Few other Orthodox scholars of similar standing would have been willing to address female concerns so publicly.

Scheinberg visited Britain annually until last year, and was greeted enthusiastically by hundreds of pupils on his trips to Hasmonean High School and Jews’ Free School in London, many of whom became more observant under his inspiration. His blessings proved, however, to be uniquely efficacious for thousands of his co-religionists: 70,000 attended his funeral on the Mount of Olives.

He is survived by four daughters and a son, Rabbi Simcha Scheinberg, himself one of the most distinguished rabbinical educators of his own generation, who succeeds him at the helm of Yeshiva of Torah Or.

Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, born October 1 1910, died March 20 2012.



8 Responses

  1. Why do we care?
    Does the fact that a “respected” media outlet publishing an obituary on one of the most respected Gedolim of our time make us feel like .. Wow, even the non-Jews appreciate?

    They also published an obituary for Lehavdil 100000 x Osama bin Laden.

  2. i am sure that the intention of YWN in publishing this article was not to show that the gadol ztz’l was clearly an important figure since his passing was reported by the non-jewish media. rather it was to show that his greatness (to some small extent) was recognised by the outside world, which makes a Kiddush Hashem.
    Do we really need to find any possible angle to find something to criticise? it’s not good for the soul.

  3. on second thoughts..
    וְרָאוּ֙ כָּל־עַמֵּ֣י הָאָ֔רֶץ כִּ֛י שֵׁ֥ם ה’ נִקְרָ֣א עָלֶ֑יךָ
    דברים כח

  4. An odom gadol is a kiddush hashem to all the nations, and it is a positive that the secular press have taken notice of this. Perhaps a secular Jew will read this and be inspired, who knows!

  5. On the contrary, one of our tasks as Jews is to be a light unto the nations. It is a singular tribute to Rav Scheinberg that his life and works have penetrated even into the gentile secular forum.
    Another example of this: The anti-semetic vizier to King of Jordan told Dr. De Haan that would all Jews be like Rav Yosef Chayim Sonnenfeld, he would have no trouble with them.

  6. #1&2, so you would prefer that the media denegrate our Gedolim instead? When they trash our leaders and our way of life, they are rightly criticized, yet when the heap praise and write a glowing obrituary, thats also a problem? Whats wrong with you?

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