Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg

Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (1878-1966) was a noted European Orthodox rabbi, posek ("decisor" of Jewish law) and rosh yeshiva. He is best known as author of the work of responsa "Seridei Eish".

Biography

Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg was born in Poland [ [http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/serideesh.html The "Ba'al Seride Esh" ] ] . He studied at the yeshivas of Mir and Slabodka. In the latter "he combined within himself Lithuanian profound understanding of Halacha with the Slabodka musar expounded by the illustrious Alter, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel". [ [http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/weinberg.htm Judaism 101 - Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg - A Glossary of Basic Jewish Terms and Concepts - OU.ORG ] ]

For seven years, he served as rabbi of the city of Pilwishki - which contained scholars of note considerably his senior. At the outbreak of World War I he went to Germany. There he studied at the University of Giessen, receiving a Ph.D. for a thesis on the Masoretic Text. Although Polish-born and Lithuanian-trained, Rabbi Weinberg "developed an extremely beautiful German prose style which was matched only by his mastery of modern Hebrew". [ [http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/serideesh.html The "Ba'al Seride Esh" ] ] . He taught at and eventually became rector (Rosh Yeshiva) of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. His students included Rabbis Eliezer Berkovits and Josef Hirsch Dunner.

As "Rosh Yeshiva", Rabbi Weinberg emerged as a leading advocate of , the German approach to Orthodox Judaism, based on the "Torah im Derech Eretz" of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. Although "Torah im Derech Eretz" was "an ideology that he had openly opposed in his youth" [ [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/azure/12/12-weinberg.html Azure ] ] , Weinberg "championed" this approach during his tenure at the Hildesheimer seminary [ See for example http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/kitveyet/deot/vaynberg.htm ] , and he "played and was to play a seminal part in the reconciliation of Torah orthodoxy with modernity" [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2117048,00.html Rabbi Josef Dunner | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited ] ] . His "melding of sources, methods, and worlds was unparalleled in modern halachic literature. It required breadth and depth of knowledge that were, and remain, rare" [ [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/azure/12/12-weinberg.html Azure ] ] .

He spent the last twenty years of his life in Montreux, Switzerland.

Works

*Seridei Eish ("Remnants of the Fire") deals with halachic questions addressed to Rabbi Weinberg from all over the world concerning the great problems of modern life - technological, social and personal. It was first published in three volumes by Mossad Harav Kook in Jerusalem (1961, 1962 and 1966 - just before Rabbi Weinberg's passing) and has been republished as "Shut Seridei Eish" (1999). "These three volumes have already become classics in the world of halachic literature... Like all great responsa works, [these] are - apart from their intrinsic halachic value - a faithful mirror of the time in which they were written and no doubt will become a fertile source for the research of future Jewish historians and sociologists" [ [http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/serideesh.html The "Ba'al Seride Esh" ] ] .

*Mechkarim beTalmud ("Investigations of the Talmud") documents Rabbi Weinberg's studies on Talmudical methodology. It was published in 1938 while Rabbi Weinberg was rosh yeshiva of the Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. This publication laid the foundation for Rabbi Weinberg's responsa. It contains not only a great number of "sugyos", explained in a novel manner, but may be considered a handbook on Talmudic methodology. This work is considered "no less classical than his responsa", in it "the traditional Lithuanian [method of study] and the modern scientific approach to the study of Talmud became an organic unity" [ [http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/serideesh.html The "Ba'al Seride Esh" ] ] .

*Other works by Rabbi Weinberg include:
**"Chidushei Baal "Seridei Eish" (Jerusalem, 2005).
**"Li-ferakim" (2002); discussions on mussar, aggada and midrash, and contemporary issues.
**"Kitvei ha-Gaon Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg zatsal" (Scranton, 2003).
**"Pinui atsmot metim" (Berlin, 1926).

External links and references

Bibliography

*Shapiro, Marc B. "Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966". London; Portland, Or.: Littman Library 1999.
*Navot, Anat. "Ben ha-chiloni le-mumar ha-dat ba-eit ha-chadashah : mishnatam ha-hilchatit shel ha-rabanim ha-leumiyim - Yitzchak Halevi Hertzog, Ben Tsiyon Meir Uziel ve-Yehiel Yaakov Weinberg". Beer Sheva: Universitat Ben-Gurion ba-Negev, 2005.
*Weingort, Avraham Aba. "Erev iyun be-mishnato shel ha-Rav Weinberg: yom ha-zikaron - 4 Shevat 5757". Jerusalem: 1997.
*Bleich, Judith. "Between East and West : modernity and traditionalism in the writings of Rabbi Yehi’el Ya’akov Weinberg". Engaging Modernity (1997) 169-273

Biography

* [http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/serideesh.html Obituary by Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld]
* [http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/weinberg.htm OU biography of Rav Weinberg]
* [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/azure/12/12-weinberg.html The Legacy of Yehiel Jacob Weinberg] - (Review of Shapiro, Marc B. "Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966". London; Portland, Or.: Littman Library 1999.)

Articles and Halacha

* [http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/kitveyet/deot/vaynberg.htm Rabbi Weinberg on the Teachings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch] (Hebrew), "daat.ac.il"
* [http://www.hamakor.org/sefarim/recent/seridei.htm Partial list of specific Halachik issues addressed by Rabbi Weinberg]
* [http://www.ou.org/torah/je/5762/122901.htm Rav Weinberg's view of the prohibition on stealing a mitzvah]
* [http://www.koltorah.org/ravj/The%20Parameters%20of%20Kol%20Isha.htm Rav Weinberg's view on "kol isha"]

Notes