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{{Short description|Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudic scholar (1863–1940)}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
{{Infobox Jewish leader
|honorific-prefix = Rabbi
|honorific-prefix = Rabbi
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|honorific-suffix =
|honorific-suffix =
|title =
|title =
|image = Reb Chaim Ozer.jpg
|image = Chaim_Ozer_Grodzinski.jpg
|caption =
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|caption = Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (right) conversing with Rabbi [[Shimon Shkop]]
|denomination = [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]]
|denomination = [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]]
|synagogue =
|synagogue =
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|birth_date = {{birth date|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>9 [[Elul]] 5623 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}}
|birth_date = {{birth date|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>9 [[Elul]] 5623 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}}
|birth_place = [[Iwye]], [[Russian Empire]] <br/>(now [[Belarus]])
|birth_place = [[Iwye]], [[Russian Empire]] <br/>(now [[Belarus]])
|death_date = {{death date and age|1940|8|9|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>5 [[Av]] 5700 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}}
|death_date = {{death date and age|1940|8|9|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>5 [[Av (month)|Av]] 5700 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}}
|death_place = [[Vilnius]], [[Soviet Lithuania]]
|death_place = [[Vilnius]], [[Soviet Lithuania]]
|buried =
|buried =
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|website =
|website =
}}
}}
'''Chaim Ozer Grodzinski'''<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Jewish Press]]
⚫
'''Chaim Ozer Grodzinski''' ({{lang-he|חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי}}; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a pre-eminent ''[[Beth din#Officers of a beth din|Av beis din]]'' (rabbinical chief justice), ''[[posek]]'' (halakhic authority), and [[Talmud]]ic scholar in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During his 55 years of community service, he was recognized as the leading ''posek'' and spiritual guide of his generation, fielding [[halakha|halakhic]] queries from all parts of the world and being consulted on every Jewish communal issue.<ref name="glimpses" /> He played an instrumental role in preserving Lithuanian yeshivas during the [[Soviet Union|Communist era]], and saved the yeshivas of Poland and Russia during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities.
|url=https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/a-letter-from-r-chaim-ozer/2021/03/05
⚫
|title=A Letter From R'Chaim Ozer |date=March 5, 2021}}</ref> ({{lang-he|חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי}}; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a ''[[Beth din#Officers of a beth din|Av beis din]]'' (rabbinical chief justice), ''[[posek]]'' (halakhic authority), and [[Talmud]]ic scholar in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for over 55 years.<ref name="glimpses" /> He played an instrumental role in preserving [[Pre-World War II European Yeshivos|Lithuanian yeshivas]] during the [[Soviet Union|Communist era]], and Polish and Russian yeshivas of Poland and during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities.

⚫
[[Image: Reb Chaim Ozer.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (right) conversing with Rabbi [[Shimon Shkop]]]]


==Biography==
==Biography==
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 [[Elul]] 5623 (24 August 1863)<ref name="glimpses">Rabbi Aharon Sorasky. ''Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer ''Is'' Klal Yisrael''. [[Hamodia]] Features, 22 July 2010, p. C3.</ref> in [[Iwye]], [[Belarus]], a small town near Vilnius. His father, Rabbi David Shlomo Grodzinski, was Rav of Iwye for over 40 years,<ref name="glimpses" /> and his grandfather was also Rav of the town for 40 years before that.<ref name="observer" />
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 [[Elul]] 5623 (24 August 1863)<ref name="glimpses">Rabbi [[Aharon Sorasky]]. ''Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer ''Is'' Klal Yisrael''. [[Hamodia]] Features, 22 July 2010, p. C3.</ref> in [[Iwye]], [[Belarus]], a small town near Vilnius. His father, David Shlomo Grodzinski, was rabbi of Iwye for over 40 years,<ref name="glimpses" /> and his grandfather was rabbi of the town for 40 years before that.<ref name="observer" />

From infancy, Chaim Ozer was weak and sickly. However, he was gifted with a fine memory, never forgetting anything he read or heard. At the age of 9, he was tested by Rabbi [[Yisroel Salanter]], who asked the boy a question in halakha. Ozer refuted the Rav's thesis and cited a different one from the sources, astounding the Rav.<ref name="glimpses" />

When he was 12 years old, his father sent him to learn with the ''peirushim'', a group of the finest Lithuanian Torah scholars assembled in [[Eishyshok]]. Chaim Ozer celebrated his [[Bar and Bat Mitzvah|bar mitzvah]] there. He declined to deliver the usual bar mitzvah ''[[pilpul]]'', but demonstrated his fluency in the ''[[Ketzos Hachoshen]]'' and the ''[[Yaakov Lorberbaum|Nesivos Hamishpat]]'' by asking his guests to recite a few words from these ''[[Sefer (Hebrew)|seforim]]'' and he continued for them, quoting entire pages word for word and clearly explaining each topic.<ref name="glimpses" />

At the age of 15, he began studying at the [[Volozhin yeshiva]] and was accepted into Rabbi [[Chaim Soloveitchik]]'s [[Shiur (Torah)|shiur]].<ref name="glimpses" />

By the age of 20, when he passed through Vilnius, his fame preceded him. Both Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski &mdash; the leading Rav of Vilna and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter &mdash; and Rabbi Elinke Levinsohn of [[Kretinga]] desired the young Torah prodigy for their own son-in-law. The two went to Rabbi [[Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor]] of [[Kovno]] to decide which family would merit this honor. After hearing each one's position, Spektor asked to meet Grodzinski, and spoke at length with him on various Torah topics. Afterward, Spektor told the two prospective fathers-in-law: "The truth is that if I had a daughter to marry off, I would take him and leave you both out in the cold. Since I have no such daughter, however, I have decided in favor of the Rav of Vilna".<ref name="glimpses" />

Two years after his marriage, Grodzinski's father-in-law died and the community of Vilnius asked him to take his place. Thus he became the leading Rav of Vilna at the age of 22. He was immediately accepted by all the older rabbis. When people remarked, "But he's so young for such a lofty position," Grodzinski humorously replied, "Don't worry, it's only a temporary blemish. I'll get over it with time".<ref name="glimpses" /> Any lingering doubts about his fitness for the position were put to rest when Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and Rabbi [[Alexander Moshe Lapidos]] came to the city and first went to call on the Rav of Vilna, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.<ref name="glimpses" />


When he was 12 years old he went to study with the ''perushim'', a group of Lithuanian Torah scholars in [[Eishyshok]] where he became [[Bar and Bat Mitzvah|bar mitzvah]].<ref name="glimpses" />
⚫
==Leadership==
⚫
In 1887 he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) of the [[beth din]] of Vilna.<ref name="Ben-Sasson">Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel. "Grodzinski, Ḥayyim Ozer." ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 91-92.</ref> He was a participant in the founding conference of [[World Agudath Israel|Agudath Israel]] (in [[Katowice|Kattowitz]], Silesia, in 1912) and served on the party's Council of Sages.<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/><ref>Eisenberg, Ronald (2014). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=osM0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241 Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship]''. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. p. 241-242.</ref> He also was a co-founder and active leader of the [[Va'ad ha-Yeshivot]] (Council of the Yeshivot),<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/> based in Vilnius, an umbrella organization that offered material and spiritual support for yeshivot throughout the eastern provinces of Poland from 1924 to 1939.


At the age of 15, he began studying at the [[Volozhin yeshiva]] and was accepted into [[Chaim Soloveitchik]]'s [[Shiur (Torah)|shiur]].<ref name="glimpses" /> He was married in his early twenties to Leah Grodnenski. Her father, Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski, was the head of the [[Beth din|Beth Din]] of Vilna (this was the most senior rabbinical position in Vilna). In 1887, after two years of marriage and at only 23 years old, Grodzinski took over his father-in-law's position, upon the latter's sudden passing.<ref name="glimpses" />
In addition to his communal work, he maintained a strict schedule of Torah learning, producing his monumental, three-volume work ''Achiezer'' even as he was fully involved in communal affairs.<ref name="observer" />


⚫
===Leadership===
⚫
He did not have his own yeshiva but assisted in the management of the Rameilles Yeshiva of Vilnius. He also established a ''kibbutz'' (group) of elite young Torah scholars, all known as ''iluyim'' (prodigies), and gave them ''[[Shiur (Torah)|shiurim]]'' on obscure Talmud topics. His students included Rabbi [[Yehezkel Abramsky]], Rabbi [[Eliezer Silver]], Rabbi [[Moshe Shatzkes]], and Rabbi [[Reuven Katz]].<ref name="glimpses" />
⚫
In 1887 he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) of the [[beth din]] of Vilna.<ref name="Ben-Sasson">{{cite EJ|last=Ben-Sasson|first=Haim Hillel|title=Grodzinski, Ḥayyim Ozer|volume=8|pages=91-92}}</ref> He was a participant in the founding conference of [[World Agudath Israel|Agudath Israel]] (in [[Katowice|Kattowitz]], Silesia, in 1912) and served on the party's Council of Sages.<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/><ref>Eisenberg, Ronald (2014). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=osM0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241 Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship]''. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. p. 241-242.</ref> He also was a co-founder and active leader of the [[Va'ad ha-Yeshivot]] (Council of the Yeshivot),<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/> based in Vilnius, an umbrella organization that offered material and spiritual support for yeshivot throughout the eastern provinces of Poland from 1924 to 1939. He wrote a three-volume work ''Achiezer''.<ref name="observer" />


⚫
He assisted in the management of the Rameilles Yeshiva of Vilnius. His students included [[Yehezkel Abramsky]], [[Eliezer Silver]], [[Moshe Shatzkes]], and [[Reuven Katz]].<ref name="glimpses" />
With the death of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchonon Spektor in 1896, Grodzinski became the leader of European Jewry. He was consulted regularly in the fight for traditional Torah education in the Russian empire and to counteract the ban against [[shechitah]] (ritual slaughter) of kosher meat. Eventually his influence was so strong that no Rav or shochet could be appointed anywhere in Poland or Russia without his consent.<ref name="glimpses" /> Thanks to his phenomenal memory, he remembered names of people and places from all over the world, making him a valuable resource when communities far and wide sought to appoint a new Rav or rosh yeshiva.<ref name="observer" />


In 1909, there was a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, that was the precursor of [[World Agudath Israel|Agudas Yisroel]], whose main goal was to combat the Zionists and the Mizrachi against Zionism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Yaakov|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1156725117|title=The empty wagon : Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft|isbn=978-1-64255-554-7|pages=718|language=En|oclc=1156725117}}</ref> Grodzinski was the first chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah, the rabbinical advisory board to the Agudah.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) and his relationship to the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis charity in Israel|url=https://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Chaim%20Ozer%20Grodzinski.asp|access-date=2022-01-28|website=www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com}}</ref>
Both the communities of [[Jerusalem]] and [[St. Petersburg]] offered him the position of [[chief rabbi]], but he declined, saying that he was needed where he was. In gratitude for his dedication, the Jewish community of Vilnius wanted to name him the official chief rabbi of Vilnius, but he refused this honor, saying that he had not come to change the city's long-standing tradition not to have a central rav. When the community offered him a pay raise instead, he agreed on condition that all the other rabbis in Vilnius would receive one, too.<ref name="glimpses" />


===Death===
When his daughter lay in the hospital on the verge of death, he ran to his office to answer all the halakhic correspondence waiting on his desk, since he knew that he would not be able to research and answer these pressing questions during the week of [[shivah]].<ref name="glimpses" />
⚫
Grodzinski died of cancer<ref name="observer">{{cite web|url=http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |title=Ish HaEshkolos: He led world Jewry from Vilna |last=Brafman |first=Rabbi Aaron |accessdate=14 December 2010 |work=[[The Jewish Observer]] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721031516/http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |archivedate=July 21, 2010 }}</ref> on 9 August 1940 (5 [[Av (month)|Av]]<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Jewish Press]]
|url=https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-257/2013/06/19/2
|title=Letters |date=June 19, 2013
|quote= the 5th of Menachem Av, the yahrzeit of both the AriZal and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.}}</ref> 5700).


==Final years==
==Works==
Grodzinski's [[posek|halachic opinion]] was highly regarded among the rabbis of his generation. His best known work is "''Ahiezer''" a collection of his ''"shutim''" ([[Responsa#In_Judaism|responsa]]). The work is known for its lengthy discussions centered on analysis as opposed to final ruling. <ref>See [[:He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#תורתו]] and [[:He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#מספריו]]</ref> In this work he often quotes Rabbi [[Akiva Eiger]].
⚫
Grodzinski died of cancer<ref name="observer">{{cite web|url=http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |title=Ish HaEshkolos: He led world Jewry from Vilna |last=Brafman |first=Rabbi Aaron |accessdate=14 December 2010 |work=[[The Jewish Observer]] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721031516/http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |archivedate=July 21, 2010 }}</ref> on 9 August 1940 (5 [[Av]] 5700). His death was closely preceded by the deaths of two other leaders of Lithuanian-style Orthodox Judaism: Rabbi [[Shimon Shkop]], rosh yeshiva of the [[Grodno]] yeshiva, who died on 22 October 1939, and Rabbi [[Boruch Ber Leibowitz]], rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Kaminetz, who died on 17 November 1939.<ref name="observer" />
Other works include two collections of correspondences by Rabbi Grodzinski on more general communal and ''[[Hashkafa|Hashkafic]]'' matters.


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{reflist}}


{{Volozhin Yeshiva}}
{{Volozhin Yeshiva}}
{{Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah}}


{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Iwye]]
[[Category:People from Iwye]]
[[Category:Belarusian Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:Belarusian Haredi rabbis]]
[[Category:Haredi rabbis in Europe]]
[[Category:Lithuanian Haredi rabbis]]
[[Category:Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:19th-century Lithuanian rabbis]]
[[Category:Judaism in Vilnius]]
[[Category:20th-century Lithuanian rabbis]]
[[Category:19th-century rabbis]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis]]
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[[Category:20th-century rabbis]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionist rabbis]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Lithuania]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Lithuania]]
[[Category:Rabbis from Vilnius]]
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[[Category:Haredi poskim]]
[[Category:Volozhin Yeshiva alumni]]

Latest revision as of 05:49, 22 June 2024

Rabbi
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Personal
Born(1863-08-24)August 24, 1863
9 Elul 5623 AM (Hebrew calendar)
Iwye, Russian Empire
(now Belarus)
DiedAugust 9, 1940(1940-08-09) (aged 76)
5 Av 5700 AM (Hebrew calendar)
Vilnius, Soviet Lithuania
ReligionJudaism
ParentRabbi David Shlomo Grodzinski
DenominationOrthodox
Alma materVolozhin yeshiva
OccupationRav of Vilnius, Lithuania
OtherLeader of Lithuanian and European Jewry

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski[1] (Hebrew: חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a Av beis din (rabbinical chief justice), posek (halakhic authority), and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for over 55 years.[2] He played an instrumental role in preserving Lithuanian yeshivas during the Communist era, and Polish and Russian yeshivas of Poland and during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities.

Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (right) conversing with Rabbi Shimon Shkop

Biography

[edit]

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 Elul 5623 (24 August 1863)[2] in Iwye, Belarus, a small town near Vilnius. His father, David Shlomo Grodzinski, was rabbi of Iwye for over 40 years,[2] and his grandfather was rabbi of the town for 40 years before that.[3]

When he was 12 years old he went to study with the perushim, a group of Lithuanian Torah scholars in Eishyshok where he became bar mitzvah.[2]

At the age of 15, he began studying at the Volozhin yeshiva and was accepted into Chaim Soloveitchik's shiur.[2] He was married in his early twenties to Leah Grodnenski. Her father, Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski, was the head of the Beth Din of Vilna (this was the most senior rabbinical position in Vilna). In 1887, after two years of marriage and at only 23 years old, Grodzinski took over his father-in-law's position, upon the latter's sudden passing.[2]

Leadership

[edit]

In 1887 he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) of the beth din of Vilna.[4] He was a participant in the founding conference of Agudath Israel (in Kattowitz, Silesia, in 1912) and served on the party's Council of Sages.[4][5] He also was a co-founder and active leader of the Va'ad ha-Yeshivot (Council of the Yeshivot),[4] based in Vilnius, an umbrella organization that offered material and spiritual support for yeshivot throughout the eastern provinces of Poland from 1924 to 1939. He wrote a three-volume work Achiezer.[3]

He assisted in the management of the Rameilles Yeshiva of Vilnius. His students included Yehezkel Abramsky, Eliezer Silver, Moshe Shatzkes, and Reuven Katz.[2]

In 1909, there was a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, that was the precursor of Agudas Yisroel, whose main goal was to combat the Zionists and the Mizrachi against Zionism.[6] Grodzinski was the first chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah, the rabbinical advisory board to the Agudah.[7]

Death

[edit]

Grodzinski died of cancer[3] on 9 August 1940 (5 Av[8] 5700).

Works

[edit]

Grodzinski's halachic opinion was highly regarded among the rabbis of his generation. His best known work is "Ahiezer" a collection of his "shutim" (responsa). The work is known for its lengthy discussions centered on analysis as opposed to final ruling. [9] In this work he often quotes Rabbi Akiva Eiger. Other works include two collections of correspondences by Rabbi Grodzinski on more general communal and Hashkafic matters.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "A Letter From R'Chaim Ozer". The Jewish Press. March 5, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Rabbi Aharon Sorasky. Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer Is Klal Yisrael. Hamodia Features, 22 July 2010, p. C3.
  3. ^ a b c Brafman, Rabbi Aaron. "Ish HaEshkolos: He led world Jewry from Vilna". The Jewish Observer. Archived from the original on July 21, 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  4. ^ a b c Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel (2007). "Grodzinski, Ḥayyim Ozer". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 8 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  5. ^ Eisenberg, Ronald (2014). Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. p. 241-242.
  6. ^ Shapiro, Yaakov. The empty wagon : Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft. p. 718. ISBN 978-1-64255-554-7. OCLC 1156725117.
  7. ^ "Biography of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) and his relationship to the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis charity in Israel". www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  8. ^ "Letters". The Jewish Press. June 19, 2013. the 5th of Menachem Av, the yahrzeit of both the AriZal and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
  9. ^ See He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#תורתו and He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#מספריו
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