Aaron Lopiansky (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: אהרן לופיאנסקי), born September 1953, also known as Rav Ahron, is an American-Israeli

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, author,

posek In Jewish law, a ''posek'' ( , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the application of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are incon ...

, and

Rosh Yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; 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, primarily the Talmud and th ...

at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington – Tiferes Gedaliah. He has written more than 20 works on Torah thought, liturgy, and philosophy.

Early life and education

Lopiansky was born and raised in New York's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

, the son of

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

. His upbringing was deeply influenced by his parents. Growing up, he was immersed in Torah learning. He attended the local

Rabbi Jacob Joseph School The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade, with another branch in Edison, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1903 by Rabbi Shmuel ...

, where he achieved high scores on statewide tests. His formal rabbinic training began at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem under the guidance of scholars such as Chaim Shmuelevitz and Nachum Partzovitz. He was also greatly influenced by his father-in-law, Rav Beinish Finkel, the late Rosh Hayeshiva of the Mir, and by his close association as a talmid (student) of Harav Moshe Shapiro.

Career

Lopiansky began his teaching career at

Aish HaTorah Aish, formerly known as Aish HaTorah (Hebrew: אש התורה, lit. "Fire of the Torah"), is a Jewish educational organization. The focus of Aish is the spread of traditional Jewish religious teachings and culture to Jews around the globe, util ...

in Jerusalem, where he taught from 1983 to 1990. He then taught at his alma mater, the Mir Yeshiva, for five years. In 1994, the headmaster of the

Yeshiva of Greater Washington The Yeshiva of Greater Washington (Tiferes Gedaliah) (YGW) is a litvishe Yeshiva located in Kemp Mill, Maryland. It was founded in 1964 by Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer. It consists of a Kollel (Zichron Amram), a Yeshiva Gedolah (that offers a Bachelor ...

, Yitzchok Merkin, reached out to Lopiansky, who was then serving as a maggid shiur at Mir Yerushalayim, with an offer to become the Rosh HaYeshiva of the

Yeshiva Gedolah Yeshiva gedolah, known in the United States as bais medrash, is a type of yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution, which is aimed at post-secondary students in their later teens or younger twenties. This contrasts with a Yeshiva Ketana or Mesivt ...

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. Lopiansky initially moved to America alone, returning to Jerusalem to ensure that he was never away from home for more than three consecutive

Shabbos Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the cre ...

im. In August 2001, his wife Rebbetzin Yaffa Lopiansky and their four children joined him. In 2019, he published a sefer, ''Orchos Chaim: A Ben Torah for Life''. During a speech at the 2019 Aguda convention, Rav

Elya Brudny Elya Brudny (born 1948) is an American Haredi rabbi. He serves as rosh yeshiva (dean)Donn, Yochonon (August 22, 2019Rav Elya Brudny Warns of 'Un-American' Regulation of Yeshivos in NY" '' Yated Ne'eman''. Retrieved August 6, 2023. in the Mir Yesh ...

notably remarked, "Every family that has made that transition rom kollel to the workplace">kollel.html" ;"title="rom kollel">rom kollel to the workplaceshould own the book". Rav Yosef Elefant spoke next. “In the modern era, there hasn’t been a sefer that touched on the topics critical to our existence, with honesty and clarity and respect, like this one has."

Activities and contributions

He supported distribution of the Torah to Soviet Jewry. In addition to his work with Soviet Jewry, Lopiansky taught in the Israeli Army, Israeli Army's Hishtalmut program, which aims to broaden the perspective of the army's officer corps by exposing them to the diverse facets of Israeli society. Lopiansky has contributed to the

Encyclopedia Talmudit The ''Encyclopedia Talmudit'' ( ''entsiyklopediah talmudiyt'') is a Hebrew language encyclopedia that aims to summarize the halakhic topics of the Talmud in alphabetical order. It began in 1942 and is still an active project as of 2023, with 5 ...

. He also sits on several boards, including the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Among his English-language works is ''Time Pieces'', a collection of essays on the Jewish holidays.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anemer, Gedaliah 20th-century American rabbis 20th-century Israeli rabbis 21st-century American rabbis American Orthodox rabbis Jewish scholars Judaic scholars Living people People from Silver Spring, Maryland Year of birth missing (living people)