Elchonon Wasserman

Elchonon Bunim Wasserman[2][3] was born in Biržai (Birz) in present-day Lithuania to Naftali Beinish, a shopkeeper and Sheina Rakhel.[4] In 1890, the family moved to Bauska (Boisk) in present-day Latvia, and Wasserman, then 15 years old, studied in the Telshe Yeshiva in Telšiai (Telz) under Eliezer Gordon and Shimon Shkop. When Wasserman returned home during vacation, he participated in classes given by Abraham Isaac Kook, who was appointed rabbi of Bauska in 1895.[5] In the summer of 1897, Wasserman met Chaim Soloveitchik at a health resort and "became deeply attached to him and his way of learning."[4] He left Telz and traveled to Brest-Litovsk (Brisk) in present-day Belarus, where he learned under Soloveitchik for two years, thereafter considering him his primary rebbe (teacher and mentor).

Wasserman was married in 1899 to Michla, the daughter of Meir Atlas, rabbi of Salantai (Salant). Wasserman lived in his father-in-law's house for many years and rejected offers of rabbinical posts (including a prestigious rabbinate in Moscow) being afforded the opportunity to learn Torah at home. He did however decide to teach, and together with Yoel Baranchik, he started a mesivta (high school) in Mstislavl (known to Jews as Amtchislav) in 1903 and earned himself a reputation as an outstanding teacher. Prior to 1907, Wasserman heard that another local rabbi wanted to head the mesivta in Amtshilov and he left to avoid an argument, returning to learn in his father-in-law's house.[4] From 1907 to 1910, he studied in the Kollel Kodshim in the Raduń Yeshiva in Radun (Radin), headed by Yisrael Meir Kagan. While at the kollel, Wasserman studied for eighteen hours a day with Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, who would later become the rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Ponevezh Yeshiva.[4]

Death in the Holocaust

Monument to the victims of the massacre at the Seventh Fort (July 1941)

When World War II broke out, Wasserman fled to Vilnius (Vilna). In 1941, while on a visit to Kaunas (Kovno), he was arrested by Lithuanian Nazi sympathizers with twelve other rabbis.

Wasserman was taken and murdered by Lithuanian collaborators on the 12th of Tammuz, 1941, in the Seventh Fort of Kaunas Fortress. Before he was taken he gave this statement:

"In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to atone for the Jewish people. Therefore, we must repent now, immediately. There is not much time. We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent. In this way we will save the lives of our brethren overseas. Let no thought enter our minds, God forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mitzvah. With fire she [Jerusalem] was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. The very fire which consumes our bodies will one day rebuild the Jewish people".

There was no monument,[9] only a marker to the pit where, with others, he was shot.[10]

Wasserman had several sons. Elazar Simcha (1899-1992),[3] his oldest, served as dean of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in Detroit in the 1940s, founded Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon (later renamed Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad/West Coast Talmudical Seminary) in Los Angeles, California, in the 1950s, and later founded Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Jerusalem. Wasserman's son David survived the Holocaust, remarried and relocated to Brooklyn.[11] Wasserman's other son Naftoli was murdered in the Holocaust.

Wasserman was an opponent of Zionism. He based his opinion upon the Torah views of his teachers, including Kagan, Gordon, Shkop and Soloveitchik. He considered all forms of Zionism to be heretical, even that of the religious Mizrachi party. He was opposed to the idea of a Jewish state because it constituted kefirah (rejection) of the coming of Moshiach (the Messiah). He held this position even in reference to a state run according to Torah law.[12][13] He declared that any religious Jew who collaborated with the Zionists was causing others to sin.[14] He rejected the notion that the creation of a state was a signal to the Atchalta De'Geulah (beginning of the Jewish redemption), considering it instead to be the beginning of a new galus (exile).[15]

Even during the Holocaust, Wasserman discouraged emigration to the United States or Palestine, viewing them as places of spiritual danger. He was particularity critical of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine and claimed, "Anti-Semites want to kill the body, but Zionists kill the soul. Better to die than consort with the Zionists."[16]

Wasserman viewed the two ascendant political movements of his time, nationalism and socialism, as "two forms of idolatry that had poisoned the hearts and minds of Jewish youth", and saw Nazism as an amalgam of both. He viewed the rise of the Nazi Party as a tool of God to exact punishment on the Jewish people for their pursuit of these foreign belief systems.[17]

• Aryeh Leib Baron
• Shmuel Berenbaum
• Henoch Fishman
• Tovia Goldstein
• Shneur Kotler
• Aryeh Leib Malin
• Nochum Partzovitz
• Dovid Povarsky
• Moshe Schwab
• Moshe Shmuel Shapiro
• Simcha Sheps
• Boruch Sorotzkin
• Simcha Wasserman[6]

Wasserman was famous for his clear, penetrating Talmudic analysis. His popular works, essential material in yeshivas around the world, are unique in their approach. He would often quote his rebbe, Chaim Soloveitchik, saying "Producing chiddushim (novel Torah concepts) is not for us. That was only in the power of the Rishonim. Our task is to understand what it says."[4] This approach is evident in his works, which include:

• Kovetz Heoros
• Kovetz Shiurim
• Kovetz Biyurim
• Kovetz Shemuos
• Kovetz Inyanim
• Kovetz Maamarim
• Ikvasa Demeshicha

Wasserman also published the responsa of the Rashba with annotations in 1932. His talmudic novellae appeared in the rabbinic journal Sha'arei Tzion (1929–1934) and in other publications.