Nosson Tzvi Finkel was an American-born
Haredi Litvish rabbi and
rosh yeshiva (dean) of the
Mir Yeshiva in
Jerusalem, Israel died he was 68. During his tenure from 1990 until his death in 2011, he built the Mir into the largest
yeshiva in Israel with nearly 6,000 undergraduate students
[2] and over 1,600
avreichim (married students).
[3][4] According to one estimate, he taught 25,000 students over his lifetime.
[5] Although he suffered from
Parkinson's disease for the last 28 years of his life,
[6] experiencing involuntary spasms and slurred speech, he did not let his illness stop him from learning
Torah for long hours, delivering regular
shiurim (lectures), and fund-raising for his yeshiva around the world.
[1] He raised an estimated
USD$500 million for the Mir during his tenure as rosh yeshiva.
[7] He was a member of the
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of
Degel HaTorah.
[8] He was known for his Torah erudition and his warmth and concern for his students.
(12 March 1943 – 8 November 2011)
Early life
Nosson Tzvi Finkel was born in
Chicago,
Illinois to Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Finkel and his wife, Sara Rosenblum, who ran a
kosher catering business.
[9] His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Finkel, was a
mashgiach ruchani at the
Hebron yeshiva in Israel,
[10] and his paternal great-grandfather was the
Alter of Slabodka, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, after whom he was named.
[2] He had one brother,
Gedaliah, who now teaches at the Mir yeshiva. After his parents
immigrated to Israel in 1973,
[11] his mother published a best-selling
kosher cookbook.
[12]
Finkel grew up as a "typical American Jewish boy"
[2] who enjoyed playing baseball.
[13] He was known as Nathan in school and Natie to his friends.
[14]
He was one of the first students of the Central Park Hebrew Day School
(later renamed Arie Crown Day School) and received after-school tutoring
in Torah studies from Rabbi Yehoshua Levinson.
[15]
In 1957, at the age of 14, he accompanied his parents on a trip to
Israel to visit the holy sites and his father’s family. His great-uncle,
Rabbi
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel
("Reb Leizer Yudel"), the Mir rosh yeshiva, recognized his ability to
think clearly and have patience for studying, and asked his parents to
let him stay and study in his yeshiva. Finkel remained at the Mir for
eight months, studying with top-notch
chavrutas (study partners) to develop his skills.
[16] He returned to Chicago to take his secondary education at the
co-ed,
Modern Orthodox Ida Crown Jewish Academy, where he was president of the
student council and a starting centerfielder for the baseball team.
[9] At the age of 17, Finkel returned to Jerusalem to learn at the Mir under the guidance of his great-uncle.
[17] He learned diligently for the next six years.
[1] With one of his
chavrutas, Rabbi Zundel Kroizer, he completed the entire
Talmud each year.
[1]
In the summer of 1964
[18] Finkel married Reb Leizer Yudel's granddaughter, Leah, his second cousin and the eldest daughter of Rabbi
Binyomin Beinush Finkel, who was his father's first cousin.
[19] He and his wife had 11 children.
[1] He continued to learn with
chavrutas at all hours, stopping at 2 a.m.;
[20] his wife would bring their children to visit him at the yeshiva so he wouldn't have to take the time to walk home.
[7] He also began delivering
shiurim in the yeshiva, which was headed by his father-in-law after the death of Reb Leizer Yudel in 1965.
[21] Upon the death of his father-in-law on 13 February 1990,
[22] Finkel was named rosh yeshiva of the Mir
[23] together with Rabbi
Refoel Shmuelevitz (son of former Mir rosh yeshiva Rabbi
Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz). Finkel took on the financial responsibility for the yeshiva.
Growth of the Mir
When Finkel first came to the Mir at the age of 17 in 1960, enrollment was less than 200 students, of which 75 percent were
avreichim (married students) and 25 percent were undergraduates.
[24] When he became rosh yeshiva in 1990, enrollment stood at approximately 1,200 students.
[24] At the time of his death, enrollment reached nearly 6,000 undergraduates
[2] and over 1,600
avreichim.
[3]
This growth is credited to Finkel's open-door policy as rosh yeshiva:
whoever wished to learn at the Mir was welcome. Enrollment now includes
Litvish,
Hasidic,
Ashkenazi,
Sephardi and
baalei teshuva students from Israel, the United States and Europe.
[1][3]
To accommodate the ever-increasing enrollment, Finkel fund-raised for
and constructed four new buildings in addition to the original yeshiva
building constructed by Reb Leizer Yudel in 1949.
[17] He assigned separate
battei medrash
(study halls) for each group of students, making one for Israeli
students, one for Americans, one for those who wished to study without a
daily
shiur, and so on. As enrollment continued to climb, several students of the main
maggidei shiur (lecturers) began delivering
shiurim in English, and Finkel raised the funds to open a new
beis medrash in 2006 for these
shiurim too. Yet another
beis medrash was built in recent years.
[19] The Mir also opened a
yeshiva gedola for Israeli students in the Brachfeld neighborhood of
Modi'in Illit[25] where Finkel gave
shiurim and occasional
shmuessen (
musar talks), and a
yeshiva ketana in the
Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem.
[1]
In an unusual move for a Litvish yeshiva, Finkel accepted 800
Hasidic students and allowed them to learn in their own
chabura and follow their own customs, including a
fartug (pre-dawn study session) before morning prayers. This group, known as
Chaburas Ameilim BaTorah
(the "Toiling in Torah" Study Group), was housed in a different
neighborhood, but the week before his death, Finkel moved them onto Mir
yeshiva premises. He participated in their Thursday-night study sessions
as well as their
seudot mitzvah (festival meals) marking a
siyum, and
Hanukkah parties.
[1][3]
Notwithstanding the Mir's huge enrollment, Finkel tried to remember the name of each student.
[2]
He also remembered personal details about each of his alumni and donors
abroad. His brother-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Lopiansky, rosh yeshiva of the
Yeshiva of Greater Washington, said that at Mir dinners, 1,000 people
could be waiting to speak with the rosh yeshiva, "and almost every
single one on the line was someone he had had a personal connection
with".
[7]
Despite his busy schedule, Finkel also expressed a willingness to learn in
chavruta with any student who asked. It was estimated that he studied with approximately 80 people every week.
[26]
Like his great-uncle Reb Leizer Yudel, Finkel offered cash incentives
for Torah study, challenging his students to learn many pages of Talmud
and study for large blocks of time. He regularly hosted siyums for
students in his own home and at his own expense.
[27]
Finkel shouldered the responsibility for raising funds for this giant
Torah enterprise. Despite his disease and its side effects, he traveled
twice a year to England and the United States.
[1] In the past two years, the
economic recession saw the yeshiva's debts mounting quicker than they were being met, with salaries and
kollel stipends running months behind. Finkel was said to be very upset by this state of affairs.
[7][1]
Illness
Finkel was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the late 1980s.
[19]
Though he experienced much difficulty in walking and talking, and
suffered from involuntary tremors and spasms and slurred speech, he
continued to learn for hours every day and gave regular
shiurim in the yeshiva, as well as embarked on regular fund-raising trips abroad.
[23][1] In later years, when he felt too weak to sit in a chair during the
chaburas
(small-group learning sessions) that he organized for students in his
home, he would lie down on a couch and encourage the students to begin
the session.
[19] He refused to take medication for his condition, since the drugs could make his mind foggy or cause memory loss
[19] and he didn't want to risk forgetting his Torah studies.
[9] He only took medication that provided temporary relief from his symptoms.
[28]
Death
At 6 a.m. in his home on November 8, 2011 (11
Cheshvan
5772), Finkel suddenly lost consciousness. EMS personnel attempted to
revive him for 50 minutes while students of the Mir stood outside in the
street praying for him. His personal doctor summoned to the home
determined that he had died of
cardiac arrest.
[1]
An estimated 100,000 people
[8][29][30] attended his funeral, which began at the Mir yeshiva in
Beit Yisrael and continued on foot to
Har HaMenuchot,
[1] where he was buried next to Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz, a former rosh yeshiva of the Mir,
[30] and close by the graves of Reb Leizer Yudel and Rabbi Binyomin Beinish Finkel.
[29] The
Edah HaChareidis ordered all
Haredi businesses to close during the funeral, and
Litvishe Torah leaders Rabbi
Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and
Aharon Leib Shteinman instructed teachers and students of
Talmud Torahs, yeshivas, and kollels to join the funeral procession.
[8][2] The procession blocked the entrance to the city and halted operations of the
Jerusalem Light Rail, as tens of thousands of mourners blocked the tracks on the
Jerusalem Chords Bridge en route to the cemetery.
[31]
Rav Finkel's death was a double blow for the Jerusalem Litvish yeshiva world, coming one day after the death of Rabbi
Dov Schwartzman, another respected Litvish rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem. Rabbi Finkel participated in Rabbi Schwartzman's funeral on 7 November.
[32]
At the funeral it was announced that Finkel's eldest son, Rabbi
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, would succeed his father as rosh yeshiva.
[19]
To see more of who died in 2011
click here
