24 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman
Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman (1913 - 2017) was a Rav and Posek (halachic authority) in Bnei Brak, Israel.
Yahrzeit - 24 Kislev
Resting place - Bnei Brak, Israel
After the passing of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in 2012, he became widely recognized as the Gadol HaDor (leader of the generation) of the Litvish (Lithuanian) world.
Rav Shteinman was born and raised in Brisk, then part of the Russian Empire. He studied in the Imrei Moshe Yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Moshe Sokolovsky, in Brisk, and attended the shiurim given by Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav. He also studied in Kletzk under Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
When he reached draft age in 1937, he was conscripted into the Polish army, since Brisk had come under the control of the newly established Polish state after World War I. He and his close friend, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik (grandson of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik), tried to avoid the draft by starving themselves, but they were found fit for service. They then fled together with other students of Brisk to Montreux, Switzerland, where they returned to studying Torah at the Etz Chaim Yeshivas.
With the outbreak of World War II, they both became prisoners of war and were held in the Schönenberg labor camp near Basel, where nearly all the prisoners kept the Torah. Rav Shteinman and his friend were assigned to lay roads, but due to Rav Shteinman's slight build and short stature, he was released from that work and transferred to office duties.
Shteinman was the only member of his family to survive the war. While still in Switzerland, he married Tamar Kornfeld, daughter of Rabbi Shammai Shraga Kornfeld of Antwerp.
She had been sent to Switzerland from Poland to treat her breathing problems, and she too became a refugee when World War II broke out. The couple had four children.
Shteinman was known for his extremely modest lifestyle. His apartment on Chazon Ish Street 5 was sparsely furnished, and the walls had not been painted in many years. Until 2014, he slept on the same thin mattress he had received from the Jewish Agency upon arriving in Israel in the early 1950s.
In his early years in Israel, Shteinman and his family lived in Kfar Saba; his sons were sent to cheder in Petach Tikva. Eventually they moved to Bnei Brak, where he headed the Ponevezh Kollel. In 1955, the Ponevezher Rav, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, opened a yeshiva ketana in Ponevezh called Ponevezh L'Tzeirim, and asked Shteinman to serve as Rosh Yeshiva together with Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz. Shteinman stopped giving his regular shiur in 1998 but retained the title of Rosh Yeshiva. He was also Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov, headed by his son-in-law, Rabbi Zev Berlin.
Shteinman was also the author of a popular series of kuntresim (booklets) on Torah topics such as emunah (faith), chinuch (education), and hashgacha (Divine providence). The booklets were based on shiurim he began giving to students of the Ponevezh Kollel at his home in 1994. An English translation of many of these topics was published in 2013 by an Israeli bookstore under the title "Leadership with Love: A Guide for Our Generation," by Maran HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman on Torah, Emunah, Chinuch, the home, and much more.
When he was in his nineties, Shteinman undertook to visit and strengthen key Chareidi and religious communities outside of Israel. In 2005, he visited a number of cities in North America with significant Chareidi populations or institutions, including Brooklyn, New York, where he met with many American Chareidi rabbis, including Rabbi Aharon Schechter of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin.
He visited the Jewish community of Los Angeles on Lag BaOmer in 2006 during a trip to America. More than five thousand people attended the gathering.
In May 2007, Shteinman visited France, then England, where he addressed large gatherings in Manchester and Gateshead. In June 2010, Shteinman visited the Jewish communities of Odessa, Berlin, and Gibraltar. In 2012, he traveled to Paris to address the French Jewish community.
Rav Shteinman published his major works on the Talmud anonymously under the name "Ayelet HaShachar" (his and his wife Tamar's initials [AYeLeT = Aharon Yehuda Leib Tamar] in Hebrew, a phrase from Tehillim 22 - "Ayelet HaShachar."
May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
(https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/591-Rabbi-Aharon-Yehuda-Leib-Shteinman)