Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt’l

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, zt’l, was a beloved Torah leader who personified the idea of “deracheha darchei noam” in both his conduct and hashkafah. Anyone who approached him with a question walked away not only with the sage advice of the gadol ha’dor, but feeling Rav Shteinman’s genuine ahavas Yisrael and the knowledge that the eitzah, or advice, he had given was just what was needed.

Rav Shteinman’s advice was practical though not always what people wanted to hear.

Mechanchim approached him about families not understanding that a child was not mat’im, not the right “match,” for their mossad. He told them that they were wrong in not wanting to take that child. They were a bit taken aback.

Regarding the matter of shalom bayis he once said: People think that the reason things are not going well for them is because of their spouse specifically. They think that if they divorce, another zivug immediately awaits them who will be fantastic for them. They don’t realize that shidduchim don’t just roll around in the streets. There are hundreds, thousands, who have no shidduchim. After a divorce there are also newer problems. People don’t necessarily chase after a second shidduch.

There was one woman who was so bent on divorce. I tried convincing her to make the best of the situation she was in, and to turn it around. Unfortunately, she didn’t listen. Today she cries; she has no husband, no family. She was sure that the moment she divorced she would find a shidduch exactly to her liking. It didn’t work out that way.

He advised girls who were getting older and not finding their shidduchim to compromise in the area of “what are people going to say” and to make sure that they marry someone with exemplary middos.

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Rav Shteinman was born in 1913 in the Torah town of Brisk. He was very close with the Brisker Rav, Rav Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, zt’l, and was a chavrusah of Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, the Rav’s son.

The two studied Torah with unprecedented depth. The rise of Nazi Germany forced Rav Shteinman to travel to Montreux, Switzerland. His parents and all five of his brothers were murdered by the Nazis.

In 1943, he married his wife, Tamar (she passed away 15 years ago), and taught in Yeshiva Heichal Eliyahu in Montreux. In 1946, the Shteinmans moved to Petach Tikvah.

The Chazon Ish recommended that he be appointed rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Kfar-Saba, a half-hour north of Petach Tikvah. In 1955, he became rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh La’tze’irim. He became very close to Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz when he was there. In 1964, he became the rosh kollel at Ponevezh. Later, he opened his own yeshiva.

He was a mechutan of Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita. Before Rav Elyashiv passed away, he instructed the Torah world to follow Rav Shteinman in all matters.

Upon Rav Shteinman’s passing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him a “giant of Jewish learning.”

“The Jewish people have lost a lighthouse of spirit, heritage, and ethics,” Netanyahu said. “Rav Shteinman established an important link in the chain of thousands of years of Torah, and his memory will rest forever in the annals of our nation.”

Rav Shteinman wrote numerous sefarim. Ayeles HaShachar is a 15-volume commentary on Shas and Chumash. He also wrote two volumes on tefillah called Yimaleh Pi Tehilasecha.

In order to appreciate what we have lost, some of his Torah is included in this article. What follows is a summary of one essay of this work (Yimaleh Pi Tehilasecha Vol. I page 8).

Throughout the day, man must always be contemplating Hashem in an attempt to emulate Him and walk in His ways. The problem is that there are numerous distractions. The best time to do this is during davening, where the very words themselves assist us in not being distracted.

Rav Saadya Gaon relates that if a person is unaware of something that is great and does not appreciate its true worth, this is a form of denigrating it.

Torah Jews follow Shulchan Aruch, and must do so even if they do not understand the reasons for the halachah. However, if we do understand the reasons, it will certainly affect our appreciation of it. This is true of many halachos of tefillah.

The Darchei Moshe (O.C. 95) cites the Rokeach that one who davens should take three steps forward. This is because there were three incidents of stepping forward in Tanach: Avraham Avinu, Yehudah, and Eliyahu. Yehudah approached Yosef who was acting as Tzafnas Pane’ach, the viceroy of Egypt, with a request. He could have made this request from the place where he was initially standing, but if you are asking someone a favor, there is a need to approach him. Our approaching Hashem with the three steps forward is to be understood in this vein–that when we make a request we must be cognizant that we are asking something. This perspective changes our whole view of things.

When Avraham made his request of Hashem to spare any decent people in Sodom, that entire episode was when Avraham Avinu was in a state of prophecy. And yet Avraham Avinu still approached Hashem in tefillah. Rabbeinu Bachya points out that the results of tefillah are greater than the results of prophecy!

We also see that there is no ceiling to the connection and dveikus we can have with Hashem. All three of these points are transformative when it comes to our davening.

It is estimated that the crowd gathered at Rav Shteinman’s funeral exceeded 600,000 people. His passing leaves a void that cannot easily be filled.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com.

 

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