Abba Mordechai Berman (1919–2005) was a

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

ist and

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

of Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud.

Early life

Abba Berman was born on Tu BiShvat 5679 (1919) in Łódź, Poland to Shaul Yosef Berman,

of Toras Chesed in Lodz and a student of the Chofetz Chayim."Gedolim Yahrtzeits"
''Chinuch.org'' As a young child, Berman's greatness was recognized by the Chofetz Chaim. The Berman family were descendants of

Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz (1550 – 21 April, 1619) was a rabbi and Torah commentator, best known for his Torah commentary ''Keli Yekar''.Although most write this as ''Keli Yakar'', "the second word should be ''Yekar''" (יְקָר), as t ...

. Following his Bar Mitzvah, Berman learned in Yeshivas Mir where he became close to the '' mashgiach ruchani'', Yerucham Levovitz. Upon his arrival, the other students gave Berman the nickname "Abba Einstein" in recognition of his brilliance. The name stuck so well that

Chaim Shmuelevitz Chaim Leib Halevi Shmuelevitz, ( he, חיים לייב שמואלביץ ;1902–1979) — also spelled Shmulevitz — was a member of the faculty of the Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem, serving as Rosh ...

, acknowledging this comparison, remarked "A ''bochur'' (young man) has arrived with such an interesting name... Einstein..."

Aryeh Finkel Aryeh Finkel (1931–2016) was a Haredi Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir Brachfeld branch of the Mir Yeshiva. Before assuming his post at the new yeshiva branch in 2005, he served as the ''Mashgiach'' at the Mir in Jerusalem for many decades. Bi ...

quoted Shmuelevitz as saying "They have

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, but we have Abba Lodzer!" Berman particularly impressed

Eliezer Yehuda Finkel Eliezer Yehuda Finkel may refer to one of the two rosh yeshivas of the Mir yeshivas: * Eliezer Yehuda Finkel (born 1879) (1879–1965), also known as Reb Leizer Yudel, rosh yeshiva of the Mir yeshiva in Poland and Jerusalem * Eliezer Yehuda Finke ...

with his novellae on

Kodashim file:Pidyon HaBen P6020102.JPG, 150px, Pidyon haben Kodashim ( he, קדשים, "Holy Things") is the fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud, and deals largely with the services within the Temple in Jer ...

.Staff. (25 April 2012
"Rav Abba Berman zt”l, On His Seventh Yahrtzeit, Today, 3 Iyar"
''Matzav.com''. Retrieved 5 August 2019. He was a study partner of

Nachum Partzovitz Rabbi Nochum Partzovitz (he: נחום פרצוביץ) (died November 26, 1986) was a rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir and is known worldwide for erudite explanations of Talmudic topics. Biography Partzovitz was born in Trakai, Poland to it ...

World War II

Along with most of the student body of the Yeshivas Mir, Berman fled to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Between ''sedorim'' (study sessions) in Shanghai he managed to obtain the only copy of

Chaim Soloveitchik Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (Yiddish: חיים סאָלאָווייטשיק, pl, Chaim Sołowiejczyk), also known as Reb Chaim Brisker (1853 – 30 July 1918), was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the popular Brisker appr ...

's chiddushim on the Rambam that was in the yeshiva. Cutting down on the time he spent at meals, he toiled over Reb Chaim instead until he'd finished the entire ''

sefer Sefer may refer to: * Sefer (Hebrew), a term for a book People with the surname * Franjo Šefer (born 1905), Yugoslav tennis player * Bela Šefer, Yugoslav footballer playing in 1924 People with the forename * Sefer Reis, Turkish privateer and Ot ...

'' (book). Thereafter he saw himself as a student of Soloveitchik and modeled the way he learned upon his approach.

New York City

Berman eventually migrated to the United States where he became one of the founding members of the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where he married Itka Greenberg. Berman established Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud on Beach 17th Street in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Land of Israel

After several years, Berman emigrated to Israel and re-established Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud in

Bnai Brak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares (1752 acres, or 2.74 sq ...

. The yeshiva relocated to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, then finally to the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

of Kiryat Sefer in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. In his final years he served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Knesses Yitzchok of Chadera-Kiryat Sefer.

Death

He died on May 12, 2005 corresponding to the 3rd of Iyar, 5765. His Talmudic lectures were published

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' (E ...

under the title "Iyun HaTalmud" (עיון התלמוד). Berman was survived by his wife and six daughters. His wife died at the end of Cheshvan, 5770. One of his daughters, Mrs. Ornstein, runs the Hadar Seminary for Women in Jerusalem, where two of Berman's other daughters also teach. One of those was married to Mosheh Twersky, the elder son of Yitzhak Twersky of Boston, and a grandson of

Joseph B. Soloveitchik Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ( he, יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק ''Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik''; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion o ...

, who taught at Yeshivas Toras Moshe and was murdered in the

2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack On the morning of 18 November 2014, two Palestinian men from Jerusalem entered Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue, in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, and attacked the praying congregants with axes, knives, and a gun. They killed four dual-nati ...

Legacy

Berman was recognized as a '' gadol'' (prominent rabbi) despite never having accepted a significant leadership pos

He is supposed to have coined the

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

, "“From your viewpoint, you’re right. It’s your viewpoint that’s wrong.�

Notable students

Chaim Malinowitz Chaim Zev Malinowitz (1952 – November 21, 2019) was a Haredi community rabbi, dayan (rabbinical court judge), and Talmudic scholar. Fluent in all areas of the Talmud, halakha (Jewish law), and hashkafa (Orthodox Jewish worldview), he was the g ...

(1952 – 2019), rabbi in

Ramat Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh ( he, בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ ) is a city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a population of in . History Tel Beit Shemesh The small archaeological tell northeast of the modern city wa ...

and editor of the Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud * Yerucham Olshin, rosh yeshiva in Beth Medrash Govoha *

Yisroel Eliyahu Weintraub Rabbi Yisrael Eliyahu Weintraub, known as Reb Yisroel Elya Weintraub, (March 25, 1932 – March 30, 2010) was one of the leading Kabbalists of his generation. The leader of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach, encouraged ma ...

, kabbalist

Publications

*Shiurei Iyun HaTalmud, on Seder Kodshim *Shiurei Iyun HaTalmud, on Seder

Nashim __notoc__ Nashim ( he, נשים "Women" or "Wives") is the third order of the Mishnah (also of the Tosefta and Talmud) containing family law. Of the six orders of the Mishnah, it is the shortest. Nashim consists of seven tractates: #''Yevamot'' ...

External links

Shiurim of Rabbi Abba Berman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Abba 1919 births 2005 deaths 20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem American Haredi rabbis Haredi rabbis in Israel Israeli settlers Clergy from Łódź 20th-century Polish rabbis Polish Haredi rabbis Polish emigrants to Israel Rosh yeshivas Mir Yeshiva alumni