Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg
Encyclopedia
Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg (born 1910) is a Polish-born, American-raised Haredi
rabbi
and rosh yeshiva
who, since 1965, makes his home in the Kiryat Mattersdorf
neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel
. He is the rosh yeshiva of the Torah Ore yeshiva
in Kiryat Mattersdorf and Yeshivas Derech Chaim in Brooklyn
. He is a posek
(decisor of Jewish law), considered by many to be a Gadol HaDor
, and is often consulted on a range of communal and personal halachic
issues. He is one of the morei d'asra (rabbinic leaders) of Kiryat Mattersdorf, together with Rabbi Yisroel Gans and Rabbi Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
of Israel.
into the Polish army. Though he planned to work and send money back home, his father was fired from job after job because he refused to work on Shabbat
. Soon he did not have enough money to rent a room, and spent months sleeping on New York City's East River Drive
with a pillow, a blanket, and an umbrella. Meanwhile, his mother, who had moved in with her parents, also struggled to make ends meet, milking cows at dawn for Polish farmers. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the family lost contact. By 1919, the family patriarch had saved enough money to open his own tailor shop and brought his wife and children to America.
At age 9 the younger Scheinberg moved with his family into a small apartment on the Lower East Side
, where his mother gave birth to twins, Shmuel and Chana Baila. After briefly attending public school, Scheinberg enrolled in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
(RJJ), where he studied until age 14. At that time, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman
, who influenced promising young Jewish men in New York City to advance in their Torah learning
, encouraged him to transfer to Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg
's Beis Medrash LeRabbonim yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut
, where no secular subjects were taught. Herman also decided that the youth would make a good husband for his third daughter, Bessie, who was then only 12 years old. By the time Scheinberg left the yeshiva at the age of sixteen and a half, he was regarded as a masmid (diligent student) and had made a siyum
on Shas
.
At age 17 Scheinberg progressed to Yeshiva University
's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
. There he learned under Rabbis Shlomo Polachek
(known as the "Meitcheter Ilui"), Moshe Soloveichik
, and Shimon Shkop
. His learning partners included Rabbis Avigdor Miller
, Moshe Bick, Mordechai Gifter
, and Nosson Meir Wachtfogel
, future leaders of American Torah Jewry.
When Scheinberg was 19, Herman suggested the match with his 17-year-old daughter and the Scheinbergs agreed. Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, who was a guest at the Herman home at that time, wrote out the tenaim (engagement contract). At his mother's suggestion, Scheinberg studied for semichah (rabbinic ordination) in the months before his wedding. He was ordained by Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel
, and other rabbis of the yeshiva before his chuppah
.
(then Poland). They lived next-door to the yeshiva, where Scheinberg immersed himself in learning while his wife coped with the impoverished lifestyle. There was no running water, the only source of heat was an oven in the center of their apartment, and the unpaved streets were always muddy. Bessie, however, encouraged her husband to grow in learning, and he developed a reputation as one of the yeshiva's biggest masmidim (diligent students).
Theirs was one of the few families in Mir; most of the student body was unmarried. Rabbi Scheinberg was also one of the few American students at the Mir. Herman had already sent his son, Nochum Dovid, and his wife to Mir right after their marriage, and a few years later, he sent his daughter Ruchoma and her new husband, Moshe Shain, as well. Scheinberg's younger brother, Shmuel, came to learn at Mir at the age of 14; he managed to escape on one of the last ships leaving Europe before World War II broke out.
The Scheinbergs' first two daughters, Fruma Rochel and Rivka, were born in Poland. When they were expecting their first child, Scheinberg and his wife visited Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan
(the Chofetz Chaim), a leader of Ashkenazi Jewry at the time, to receive his blessing. When Scheinberg asked the Chofetz Chaim for an additional blessing since he had come all the way from America to study at the Mir, the Chofetz Chaim quipped, "Moshe Rabbeinu
came down all the way from heaven to teach the Yidden
Torah
. What’s the big deal about coming from America to Europe?!” Then he blessed them.
While in Europe, Scheinberg also learned at the Kaminetz yeshiva and received semicha from Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
In 1935 the Scheinbergs returned to America because his American citizenship would have expired after more than five years abroad. Soon after his return, Scheinberg was offered the position of mashgiach ruchani
of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens
founded by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz
. He served in that position for 25 years, until leaving to open his own yeshiva, Torah Ore. Scheinberg was known for the warm and caring relationship he developed with his students, and for the chesed
he and his wife did for neighbors and visitors in their small apartment. Often their daughters slept two to a bed to make room for unexpected guests. During this time, RScheinberg also became the Rav of Congregation Bakash Shalom Anshei Ostrov on the Lower East Side, where he gave shiurim (classes) to working men.
The Scheinbergs had two more daughters, Chana and Zelda, and a son, Simcha, in New York. They also raised Rivky Kaufman, one of the seven orphans of Bessie's sister Freida, after the latter's sudden death in 1938.
With the help and encouragement of his brother, Rabbi Shmuel Scheinberg, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Chaim Dov Altusky (Fruma Rochel's husband), Scheinberg opened the Torah Ore yeshiva in the Bensonhurst
section of Brooklyn
in 1960. The yeshiva opened with six students and grew steadily, enrolling many local Sephardi
boys who were attracted by Scheinberg's Torah knowledge and warmth. The Scheinbergs treated their students as their own children, raising money to marry them off and even pay their dentist bills.
, which was being developed by Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld
, the Mattersdorfer Rebbe, who was Ruchoma's neighbor in New York. Upon her return, she told Bessie about her desire to buy an apartment there, and Bessie also expressed interest in buying an apartment. Though Scheinberg was skeptical about relocating his family and his American yeshiva to Israel, he made a pilot trip to tour the development and decided that it could work.
The Scheinbergs, their daughter Fruma Rochel and her family, their son Simcha and his family, and over 20 of Scheinberg's students moved into their new homes in May 1965. Rabbi Asa Wittow, a married student who had learned under Scheinberg since 1960 and who also served as his driver in New York, made aliyah
with him and moved into the same apartment building. He has served as Scheinberg's driver ever since.
Scheinberg first established the Torah Ore yeshiva in the Diskin Orphanage
building in the Givat Shaul
neighborhood. Two years later, the Six-Day War
broke out, and many American tourists headed home. Scheinberg encouraged his students to stay, and none of the American students at Torah Ore left the yeshiva. During the war, Scheinberg showed his complete devotion to his students, giving them encouragement and sleeping together with them in the bomb shelter
.
After the war, Scheinberg undertook plans to build a permanent home for his yeshiva. Torah Ore moved into its present building in Kiryat Mattersdorf in 1971. As of 2011, the yeshiva enrolls nearly 800 students, including over 500 kollel
students.
Bessie was a key partner in her husband's work, supporting him and his students and opening her home to the many people who sought her husband's counsel. They even installed a telephone in their bedroom so callers could reach him at any hour. On Simchat Torah
, when hundreds of singing and dancing students escorted Scheinberg home from the yeshiva after services, she would look on from their fifth-floor apartment. When he came upstairs, he would say to her, "Did you see that? Did you see all those students singing and dancing? That was all because of you. It's all yours, Basha". Similarly, when she came into the yeshiva, he would give up his seat for her, saying, "Basha, this seat belongs to you".
Scheinberg became a central address for Americans in Israel seeking guidance for raising children, finding a neighborhood to live in, shidduch
im, and medical issues, as well as regular halachic questions. His approbation is sought for many Hebrew-
and English-language
halacha books for adults and children. The English sefer
Rigshei Lev: Women and tefillah – perspectives, laws and customs cites his halachic opinions extensively. In 2000, his neighborhood lectures to English-speaking women were compiled in a book by ArtScroll
.
Despite his advanced age, Scheinberg continues to fly abroad to fund-raise for his yeshiva. He always takes the Talmud
ic tractate of Niddah
with him and tries to learn all 72 dapim (folio-pages) during the flight. He is known for never wasting a minute, using the time he spends walking or driving to yeshiva immersed in Torah study. According to his driver, Rabbi Wittow, he always sits with a sefer in front of him, even at a wedding, and props a Mishnah Berurah
on the shelf above his kitchen sink while he washes dishes.
He is also famous for wearing many layers of tzitzit
. In the past he would wear about 150 pairs, but today, due to his fragile health, he wears only about 70 pairs. He has said that he wears them on behalf of people who do not fulfill this mitzvah
, but Wittow believes that that is not the main reason.
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
who, since 1965, makes his home in the Kiryat Mattersdorf
Kiryat Mattersdorf
Kiryat Mattersdorf is a Haredi neighborbood in Jerusalem, Israel. It is located on the northern edge of the mountain plateau on which central Jerusalem lies. It is named after Mattersburg , a town in Austria with a long Jewish history. It borders Unsdorf and Romema...
neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He is the rosh yeshiva of the Torah Ore yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in Kiryat Mattersdorf and Yeshivas Derech Chaim in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. He is a posek
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
(decisor of Jewish law), considered by many to be a Gadol HaDor
Gadol
Gadol or godol גדול , is a Hebrew term used mostly by Haredi Litvish Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of their generation. These rabbis are usually held in high esteem by other Haredi or Orthodox Jews, though not necessarily to the same degree as by Litvish Jews...
, and is often consulted on a range of communal and personal halachic
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
issues. He is one of the morei d'asra (rabbinic leaders) of Kiryat Mattersdorf, together with Rabbi Yisroel Gans and Rabbi Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah refers to the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of any of several related Haredi Jewish organizations....
of Israel.
Early years
Scheinberg was born in 1910 in Ostrov, Poland, the second son of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Scheinberg and Yuspa (Yosefa) Tamback. He was born in his father's absence, as earlier that year, his father had left his wife and firstborn son Avraham Nosson to go to America to avoid conscriptionConscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
into the Polish army. Though he planned to work and send money back home, his father was fired from job after job because he refused to work on Shabbat
Shomer Shabbat
A shomer Shabbat or shomer Shabbos is a person who observes the mitzvot associated with Judaism's Shabbat...
. Soon he did not have enough money to rent a room, and spent months sleeping on New York City's East River Drive
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive is a freeway-standard parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
with a pillow, a blanket, and an umbrella. Meanwhile, his mother, who had moved in with her parents, also struggled to make ends meet, milking cows at dawn for Polish farmers. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the family lost contact. By 1919, the family patriarch had saved enough money to open his own tailor shop and brought his wife and children to America.
At age 9 the younger Scheinberg moved with his family into a small apartment on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, where his mother gave birth to twins, Shmuel and Chana Baila. After briefly attending public school, Scheinberg enrolled in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
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. The school was founded in 1903 and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew...
(RJJ), where he studied until age 14. At that time, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman
Yaakov Yosef Herman
Yaakov Yosef Herman was an Orthodox rabbi who served as a pioneer of Torah Judaism in the United States and helped revolutionize Jewish life in the early 1900s in New York City.-Biography:...
, who influenced promising young Jewish men in New York City to advance in their Torah learning
Torah study
Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts...
, encouraged him to transfer to Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg
Yehuda Levenberg
Rabbi Yehuda Heschel Levenberg was a well-known pioneer in the implanting of the Europen Jewish community on the shores of America....
's Beis Medrash LeRabbonim yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, where no secular subjects were taught. Herman also decided that the youth would make a good husband for his third daughter, Bessie, who was then only 12 years old. By the time Scheinberg left the yeshiva at the age of sixteen and a half, he was regarded as a masmid (diligent student) and had made a siyum
Siyum
A siyum means the completion of any unit of Torah study, or book of the Mishnah or Talmud in Judaism. A siyum is usually followed by a celebratory meal, or seudat mitzvah, a meal in honor of a mitzvah, or commandment...
on Shas
Shas
Shas is an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel, primarily representing Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Judaism.Shas was founded in 1984 by dissident members of the Ashkenazi dominated Agudat Israel, to represent the interests of religiously observant Sephardic and Mizrahi ...
.
At age 17 Scheinberg progressed to Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University, located in Washington Heights, New York. It is named after Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, who died the year it was founded, 1896...
. There he learned under Rabbis Shlomo Polachek
Shlomo Polachek
Shlomo Polachek was born in Sinichinitz, near Meitchet, Grodna. He was an important Talmudic scholar and one of the earliest rosh yeshivas in America....
(known as the "Meitcheter Ilui"), Moshe Soloveichik
Moshe Soloveichik
Moshe Soloveitchik , was an Orthodox rabbi. He was the second son of renowned rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and grandson of the Beis HaLevi. He married Pesya Feinstein, daughter of the renowned Rabbi of Pruzany, Rabbi Eliyahu Feinstein, and first cousins with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.At the age of 31, he...
, and Shimon Shkop
Shimon Shkop
Shimon Yehuda Hakohen Shkop was a rosh yeshiva in the Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah and in the Telshe yeshiva and a renowned Talmudic scholar. He was born in Torez in 1860. At the age of twelve he went to study in the Mir yeshiva, and at fifteen he went to Volozhin yeshiva where he studied six years...
. His learning partners included Rabbis Avigdor Miller
Avigdor Miller
Rabbi Avigdor Miller was a Haredi rabbi, author and lecturer in the United States. He served simultaneously as a communal rabbi and as the mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and as a teacher in Beis Yaakov for many years.-Biography:Rabbi Miller was born in 1908 in Baltimore...
, Moshe Bick, Mordechai Gifter
Mordechai Gifter
Rabbi Mordechai Gifter was the rosh yeshiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland and among the foremost religious leaders of Orthodox Jewry in the late 20th century. He studied in yeshivas in Lithuania and held several rabbinical positions in the United States of America.-Biography:Mordechai Gifter...
, and Nosson Meir Wachtfogel
Nosson Meir Wachtfogel
Nosson Meir Wachtfogel , known as the Lakewood Mashgiach, was an Orthodox rabbi and long-time mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey...
, future leaders of American Torah Jewry.
When Scheinberg was 19, Herman suggested the match with his 17-year-old daughter and the Scheinbergs agreed. Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, who was a guest at the Herman home at that time, wrote out the tenaim (engagement contract). At his mother's suggestion, Scheinberg studied for semichah (rabbinic ordination) in the months before his wedding. He was ordained by Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel
Bernard Revel
Bernard Revel was an Orthodox rabbi and scholar. He served as the first President of Yeshiva College from 1915 until his death in 1940...
, and other rabbis of the yeshiva before his chuppah
Chuppah
A chuppah , also huppah, chupah, or chuppa, is a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony. It consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, or sometimes manually held up by attendants to the ceremony. A chuppah symbolizes the...
.
Mir, Poland
With the encouragement of his father-in-law, Scheinberg and his new wife spent their first five years of marriage in the town of Mir, BelarusMir, Belarus
Mir is an urban settlement in Kareličy raion, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus on the banks of Miranka River, about 85 kilometers southwest of the national capital, Minsk....
(then Poland). They lived next-door to the yeshiva, where Scheinberg immersed himself in learning while his wife coped with the impoverished lifestyle. There was no running water, the only source of heat was an oven in the center of their apartment, and the unpaved streets were always muddy. Bessie, however, encouraged her husband to grow in learning, and he developed a reputation as one of the yeshiva's biggest masmidim (diligent students).
Theirs was one of the few families in Mir; most of the student body was unmarried. Rabbi Scheinberg was also one of the few American students at the Mir. Herman had already sent his son, Nochum Dovid, and his wife to Mir right after their marriage, and a few years later, he sent his daughter Ruchoma and her new husband, Moshe Shain, as well. Scheinberg's younger brother, Shmuel, came to learn at Mir at the age of 14; he managed to escape on one of the last ships leaving Europe before World War II broke out.
The Scheinbergs' first two daughters, Fruma Rochel and Rivka, were born in Poland. When they were expecting their first child, Scheinberg and his wife visited Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan
Yisrael Meir Kagan
Yisrael Meir Poupko , known popularly as The Chofetz Chaim, was an influential Eastern European rabbi, Halakhist, posek, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Jewish life...
(the Chofetz Chaim), a leader of Ashkenazi Jewry at the time, to receive his blessing. When Scheinberg asked the Chofetz Chaim for an additional blessing since he had come all the way from America to study at the Mir, the Chofetz Chaim quipped, "Moshe Rabbeinu
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
came down all the way from heaven to teach the Yidden
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
. What’s the big deal about coming from America to Europe?!” Then he blessed them.
While in Europe, Scheinberg also learned at the Kaminetz yeshiva and received semicha from Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
In 1935 the Scheinbergs returned to America because his American citizenship would have expired after more than five years abroad. Soon after his return, Scheinberg was offered the position of mashgiach ruchani
Mashgiach ruchani
Mashgiach ruchani or mashgiach for short, means a spiritual supervisor or guide. It is a title which usually refers to a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva and is responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students' lives.The position of mashgiach ruchani arose with the...
of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
founded by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz
Dovid Leibowitz
Dovid Leibowitz was a leading rabbi and disciple of prewar Europe's Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania who went on to found the Rabbinical Seminary of America as its first Rosh yeshiva in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, New York...
. He served in that position for 25 years, until leaving to open his own yeshiva, Torah Ore. Scheinberg was known for the warm and caring relationship he developed with his students, and for the chesed
Chesed
The Hebrew noun khesed or chesed is the Hebrew word for "kindness." It is also commonly translated as "loving-kindness," or "love." Love is a central Jewish value, and leads to many particular commandments. Chesed is central to Jewish ethics and Jewish theology...
he and his wife did for neighbors and visitors in their small apartment. Often their daughters slept two to a bed to make room for unexpected guests. During this time, RScheinberg also became the Rav of Congregation Bakash Shalom Anshei Ostrov on the Lower East Side, where he gave shiurim (classes) to working men.
The Scheinbergs had two more daughters, Chana and Zelda, and a son, Simcha, in New York. They also raised Rivky Kaufman, one of the seven orphans of Bessie's sister Freida, after the latter's sudden death in 1938.
With the help and encouragement of his brother, Rabbi Shmuel Scheinberg, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Chaim Dov Altusky (Fruma Rochel's husband), Scheinberg opened the Torah Ore yeshiva in the Bensonhurst
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
Bensonhurst is a neighborhood located in the southwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.-Geography:Sometimes erroneously thought to include all or parts of such neighborhoods as Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Borough Park, or to be defined by the streets where the concentration of...
section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in 1960. The yeshiva opened with six students and grew steadily, enrolling many local Sephardi
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
boys who were attracted by Scheinberg's Torah knowledge and warmth. The Scheinbergs treated their students as their own children, raising money to marry them off and even pay their dentist bills.
Move to Israel
In 1963 Bessie's sister Ruchoma visited their father in Israel and toured a planned Haredi housing development in northern Jerusalem called Kiryat MattersdorfKiryat Mattersdorf
Kiryat Mattersdorf is a Haredi neighborbood in Jerusalem, Israel. It is located on the northern edge of the mountain plateau on which central Jerusalem lies. It is named after Mattersburg , a town in Austria with a long Jewish history. It borders Unsdorf and Romema...
, which was being developed by Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld
Shmuel Ehrenfeld
Shmuel Ehrenfeld , known as the Mattersdorfer Rav, was a pre-eminent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in pre-war Austria and a respected Rav and community builder in post-war America. He established Yeshivas Chasan Sofer in New York and taught thousands of students who went on to become leaders of American...
, the Mattersdorfer Rebbe, who was Ruchoma's neighbor in New York. Upon her return, she told Bessie about her desire to buy an apartment there, and Bessie also expressed interest in buying an apartment. Though Scheinberg was skeptical about relocating his family and his American yeshiva to Israel, he made a pilot trip to tour the development and decided that it could work.
The Scheinbergs, their daughter Fruma Rochel and her family, their son Simcha and his family, and over 20 of Scheinberg's students moved into their new homes in May 1965. Rabbi Asa Wittow, a married student who had learned under Scheinberg since 1960 and who also served as his driver in New York, made aliyah
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
with him and moved into the same apartment building. He has served as Scheinberg's driver ever since.
Scheinberg first established the Torah Ore yeshiva in the Diskin Orphanage
Diskin Orphanage
The Diskin Orphanage was an orphanage in the Old City of Jerusalem, establishedin 1881 by Yehoshua Leib Diskin. From the Jewish Quarter, it moved to Street of the Prophets outside the walls of the Old City...
building in the Givat Shaul
Givat Shaul
Givat Shaul is a neighborhood in western Jerusalem named after the Rishon Lezion, Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and not, as commonly believed, for the biblical King Saul, whose capital was probably located on the hill Gibeah of Saul near Pisgat Ze'ev, on the way...
neighborhood. Two years later, the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
broke out, and many American tourists headed home. Scheinberg encouraged his students to stay, and none of the American students at Torah Ore left the yeshiva. During the war, Scheinberg showed his complete devotion to his students, giving them encouragement and sleeping together with them in the bomb shelter
Bomb shelter
A bomb shelter is any kind of a civil defense structure designed to provide protection against the effects of a bomb.-Types of shelter:Different kinds of bomb shelters are configured to protect against different kinds of attack and strengths of hostile explosives. For example, an Air-raid shelter...
.
After the war, Scheinberg undertook plans to build a permanent home for his yeshiva. Torah Ore moved into its present building in Kiryat Mattersdorf in 1971. As of 2011, the yeshiva enrolls nearly 800 students, including over 500 kollel
Kollel
A kollel is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim and learning sedarim ; unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kollel are all married men...
students.
Bessie was a key partner in her husband's work, supporting him and his students and opening her home to the many people who sought her husband's counsel. They even installed a telephone in their bedroom so callers could reach him at any hour. On Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah or Simḥath Torah is a celebration marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle...
, when hundreds of singing and dancing students escorted Scheinberg home from the yeshiva after services, she would look on from their fifth-floor apartment. When he came upstairs, he would say to her, "Did you see that? Did you see all those students singing and dancing? That was all because of you. It's all yours, Basha". Similarly, when she came into the yeshiva, he would give up his seat for her, saying, "Basha, this seat belongs to you".
Scheinberg became a central address for Americans in Israel seeking guidance for raising children, finding a neighborhood to live in, shidduch
Shidduch
The Shidduch is a system of matchmaking in which Jewish singles are introduced to one another in Orthodox Jewish communities for the purpose of marriage....
im, and medical issues, as well as regular halachic questions. His approbation is sought for many Hebrew-
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and English-language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
halacha books for adults and children. The English sefer
Sefer (Hebrew)
Sefer in simple Hebrew is a word that means any kind of "book" It is derived from the same Hebrew root-word as sofer , sifriyah and safrut ....
Rigshei Lev: Women and tefillah – perspectives, laws and customs cites his halachic opinions extensively. In 2000, his neighborhood lectures to English-speaking women were compiled in a book by ArtScroll
ArtScroll
ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York...
.
Later life
Bessie, who had been in ill health for years, died on 21 October 2009 at the age of 96. They had been married for 79 years.Despite his advanced age, Scheinberg continues to fly abroad to fund-raise for his yeshiva. He always takes the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic tractate of Niddah
Tohorot
Tohorot is the sixth order of the Mishnah . This order deals with the clean/unclean distinction and family purity. This is the longest of the orders in the Mishnah. There are 12 tractates:...
with him and tries to learn all 72 dapim (folio-pages) during the flight. He is known for never wasting a minute, using the time he spends walking or driving to yeshiva immersed in Torah study. According to his driver, Rabbi Wittow, he always sits with a sefer in front of him, even at a wedding, and props a Mishnah Berurah
Mishnah Berurah
The Mishnah Berurah is a work of halakha by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan , also colloquially known by the name of another of his books, Chofetz Chaim "Desirer of Life."...
on the shelf above his kitchen sink while he washes dishes.
He is also famous for wearing many layers of tzitzit
Tzitzit
The Hebrew noun tzitzit is the name for specially knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews. Tzitzit are attached to the four corners of the tallit and tallit katan.-Etymology:The word may derive from the semitic root N-TZ-H...
. In the past he would wear about 150 pairs, but today, due to his fragile health, he wears only about 70 pairs. He has said that he wears them on behalf of people who do not fulfill this mitzvah
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
, but Wittow believes that that is not the main reason.
Works
- Derech Emunah U-Bitachon (The Way of Faith and Trust)
- Tabaas HaChoshen (see here) – a comprehensive, multi-volume explanation of the Ketzot HachoshenAryeh Leib HaCohen HellerAryeh Leib Heller-Kahane was a Rabbi, Talmudist, and Halachist in Galicia. He was known as "the Ketzos" based on his greatest work, Ketzot Hachoshen, קצות החושן.-Biography:...
, first published in 1951 - Mishmeres Chaim
- Chiddushei VeShiurei Rav Chaim Pinchas – shiurim and new Torah thoughts on numerous TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic tractates - Netivot Chaim (translated into English as The Torah Way of Life by Jerusalem Publications: Vol. 1: Bereishis (2004), ISBN 0974391190; Vol. 2: Shemos (2005); Vol. 4: Bamidbar (2007).