Moshe Sternbuch

Moshe Sternbuch was born in London on 15 February 1926, one of nine children of Osher Sternbuch, an Orthodox Jewish merchant, and Devorah. His parents hosted numerous rabbis who came to London to raise money for their yeshivas, among them Elchonon Wasserman, who after learning with Sternbuch declared that he was a davar sheyeish bo mamash (a boy of substance). He was tested in learning every Shabbat by Yechezkel Abramsky, who predicted he would one day become a moreh hora'ah (posek). Before long he was known as the Londoner Illui (prodigy).[1] Osher died in 1939 at the age of 39, leaving behind his eldest child of 18 years, the 10-year-old Sternbuch, and the youngest only two. In 1940, he entered the Toras Emes yeshiva in Stamford Hill, of which Moshe Schneider was the rosh yeshiva, where he would remain for ten years.[2] He studied there with Bezalel Rakow, who was later to become the Gateshead Rov,[3] Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, his future colleague in the Edah HaChareidis, and future Olympia and York businessman Paul Reichmann.[4]

Sternbuch's family fled London during World War II due to The Blitz. They moved to a small nearby village where he shared a room with Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, author of Michtav me-Eliyahu, who predicted that Sternbuch would someday be one of the gedolei hador (greatest of the generation).[5]

Due to the increasing threat of a Nazi invasion of Britain, Sternbuch's mother attempted to arrange his safe passage to Canada or the United States. She asked Elyah Lopian, a rosh yeshiva from the East End of London, for advice on whether or not to allow her son to board the ship. He offered to perform a ceremony that included fasting to help her reach a decision but in the end, the ship departed without Sternbuch and sank with all 300 children aboard.[5]

In 1954, Sternbuch married the daughter of Yaakov Schechter, an acquaintance of the Chazon Ish. Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik[6] and Chanoch Ehrentreu were his brothers-in-law.[7]

He resides in Har Nof, where he is the rabbi of the local Gra Synagogue, named after the Vilna Gaon of whom he is a direct descendant.[1]

Moshe Sternbuch, seated, with the Kaliver Rebbe to his right

After the war, Sternbuch immigrated to Israel to study Torah. He enrolled in the Hebron Yeshiva, cultivating relationships with rabbis Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik (in 1952), Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz (the Chazon Ish) and Dov Berish Weidenfeld, with whom he used to meet regularly in their homes.[8]

After his marriage in 1954, Sternbuch moved to an apartment in Jerusalem next to Soloveitchik. He was appointed rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hamasmidim. In 1960, after Soloveitchik's death, the family moved to Bnei Brak, where they resided for the next 20 years. Yechezkel Abramsky encouraged Sternbuch to devote himself to strengthening Torah study in Rosh HaAyin, a nearby town with a substantial Yemenite Jewish immigrant population. Forgoing an opportunity to establish an elite kollel in Bnei Brak, he established one in Rosh HaAyin and founded Beit Olot, a home for immigrant Mizrahi girls on the model of Bayit L'Pleitot, a similar home for Ashkenazi girls.[9]

In 1980, Sternbuch took up a position in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was involved in outreach there, including lectures to medical professionals. When he later moved to Jerusalem, many of these South Africans joined him in his new location in the Har Nof neighbourhood.[10]

Sternbuch served as Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court[11] and the Ra'avad (Chief) of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem. On July 20, 2023, Elyakim Schlesinger appointed Sternbuch as Ga'avad (Chief Rabbi) of the Edah HaChareidis, succeeding Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, who died in 2022. The ceremony, which was held in the Dushinsky synagogue in Jerusalem, was controversial, as it was not accepted by right-wing elements in the Edah, who bristled at Sternbuch's disagreement with Weiss over the permissibility of using a former burial ground as a housing development in Beit Shemesh.[12]

Sternbuch opposes secular Zionism and the State of Israel. He says there is no connection between the existence of a Jewish state and the beginning of the redemption of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel which will precede the Messianic Era.

In 2013, a new housing development under construction in the Ramat Avraham neighbourhood of Beit Shemesh was found to be situated atop an ancient burial ground. Since Jewish law forbids the desecration of cemeteries, the project was put on hold pending an investigation. Sternbuch ruled, through his Agudat Eretz HaHayim burial society, that it was permissible to investigate the remains. This decision led to resumption of the construction work. However, the competing organisation Asra Kadisha, led by Weiss, determined that all construction on the site must be halted immediately, with the area to be left permanently abandoned. After the latter's ruling was ignored, rioting ensued in Ramat Avraham on the part of Haredi residents from Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet and Mea Shearim.[13]

In September 2018, Sternbuch criticized British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis for publishing an educational pamphlet warning against LGBT bullying in Orthodox schools. Sternbuch viewed this as advocacy for the LGBT lifestyle.[14]

• Moadim Uzmanim (9 Vol) (in Hebrew). Nesivos HaTorah VeHaChesed. - Commentary on the Jewish holidays
• Ta'am VeDaas Al HaTorah (3 Vol) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem, Israel. - Commentary on the Torah
• Haggadah Shel Pesach: Ta'am VeDa'as (in Hebrew). Jerusalem, Israel. 2001.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Commentary on the Passover haggadah
• Teshuvos VeHanhagos (7 Vol) (in Hebrew). - Questions and answers on the Shulchan Aruch
• Chochma VeDaas (2 Vol) (in Hebrew).
• HaDerech LiTeshuva (in Hebrew).
• Birkas HaChamah (in Hebrew).
• Erev Pesach SheChal B'Shabbos Ve'Purim Me'shulash (in Hebrew).
• Orchos HaBayis (in Hebrew). - Laws of the home
• Rav Moshe Speaks.
• Commentary on the Shev Shmaytsa (in Hebrew).
• Hilchos HaGr"a U'minhagav (in Hebrew). - Laws and customs of the Vilna Gaon
• Stam Ke'Hilchasan (in Hebrew). Jerusalem, Israel. 2007.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Laws of writing a sefer torah, tefillin, and mezuzah.
• A Voice in the Darkness Harav Moshe Sternbuch Speaks on Contemporary Issues (In English). Jerusalem, Israel: Feldheim.]
• Talks on the Weekly Sedra, Taste and Know (In English). Jerusalem, Israel.]
• Laws of Jewish Family Life Laws Niddah (In English). Jerusalem, Israel.].

• Frankfurter, Yitzchok (28 March 2018) "From One Generation to Another: A Conversation with the Renowned Posek and Rosh Beis Din of Yerushalayim Rav Moshe Sternbuch", Ami Magazine. Issue 361, pp. 42-68.