Mashgiach ruchani

A mashgiach ruchani (Hebrew: משגיח רוחני; pl., mashgichim ruchani'im) or – sometimes mashgiach for short – is a spiritual supervisor or guide. He or she is usually a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva and is responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students' lives.[1]

The position of mashgiach ruchani arose with the establishment of the modern "Lithuanian-style" mussar yeshivas. The prototype of this new type of rabbinical leader and educator was Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1849-1927) known as the Alter (elder) of the Slabodka yeshiva, Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka), in Lithuania.

The role of the mashgiach ruchani was strongest in the era prior to World War II, when often the mashgichim were responsible for maintaining the yeshiva financially, recruiting and interviewing new students, and hiring staff, something akin to academic deans. After the Holocaust, the influence and position of the mashgiach decreased, and the roles of the rosh yeshivas have grown at the expense of those of the mashgichim. A modern mashgiach/mashgicha is somewhat equivalent to the secular counselor position.

The need for having mashgichim within the modern yeshivas was tied in with the rise of the modern mussar movement (teaching of Jewish ethics), inspired by the 19th-century rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter, and was seen as necessary because yeshiva students faced greater pressures and problems from the world outside their yeshiva studies.

Some yeshivas may refer to a mashgiach/mashgicha ruchani as a menahel ruchani (the word menahel means 'principal', as in the principal of a school, or 'supervisor'.)

Chabad yeshivas have a similar position referred to as mashpia, meaning a person who provides (spiritual) influence.