Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim (also known as the Rabbinical Seminary of America) is an Orthodox yeshiva in the United States, based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York. It is primarily an American, Lithuanian-style Talmudic yeshiva. The Yeshiva is legally titled Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA), however it is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim, as that was the sobriquet of its namesake, Yisroel Meir Kagan. The school has affiliate branches in Israel and North America.

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim
Address
76-01 147th St

Kew Gardens Hills, Queens
,
New York

United States
Information
TypePrivate elementary, middle school, high school, and beis medrash
Established1933
FounderRabbi Dovid Leibowitz
PrincipalRabbi Dovid Harris, Rabbi Akiva Grunblatt

History

The yeshiva was established in 1933 by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz, a great-nephew of the Chofetz Chaim. Leibowitz was a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel and he also studied under Rabbi Naftoli Trop and the Chafetz Chaim in the Raduń Yeshiva. Both of these yeshivas were in Lithuania. However, for a time Radin was governed by Poland.

The new yeshiva was named for his great uncle Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who had died that year. Although it's officially named Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen, the yeshiva is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim[1] (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים), as its namesake, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, was known as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book with the same title. (Chofetz Chaim means "Seeker/Desirer [of] Life" in Hebrew. The book concentrates on the Jewish religious laws of proper speech.)

The yeshiva's first building was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In December 1955 it relocated to Forest Hills, Queens, and at the start of the 2003 academic year, to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.[2]

After its founder's death in December 1941, the yeshiva was headed and developed by his son, Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz. Today, it is led by two of Liebowitz's close disciples, Rabbi Dovid Harris[3] and Rabbi Akiva Grunblatt.[4]

RSA houses a boys' yeshiva high school, an undergraduate yeshiva, and a rabbinical school that grants Semicha (ordination). Rabbinical students at the yeshiva often spend a decade or more there, studying a traditional yeshiva curriculum focusing on Talmud, mussar ("ethics"), and halakha ("Jewish law").

Characteristics

There are six primary characteristics of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim of Queens that distinguish it from other Yeshivos:

  1. An emphasis upon unfolding the latent processes of reasoning within the steps of the Talmudic sugya ("section") being studied. The methodology places emphasis on the notion that the initial assumptions of the Talmud must be highly rigorous, and that the movement between the initial thought process (known as the hava aminah) of the Talmudic sugya to the final thought process (known as the maskana) must be fully unfolded and understood.[5]
  2. An approach to ethical and Biblical texts and its commentaries that emphasizes rigor. The yeshiva promotes the idea that ideally a deduction from these texts should be "logically and textually compelling."[6]
  3. The study of Mussar ("ethics"), both by attending and reviewing semiweekly lectures and through daily individual study of Mussar texts, is strongly emphasized. Dovid Leibowitz founded the Chofetz Chaim yeshiva in the footsteps of his rebbe, the Alter of Slabodka, and Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the Mussar movement. Henoch Leibowitz would continually remind his students that as important as it is to become a lamden ("analytical scholar") and a great pedagogue, it is even more important to become a mentch ("a good human being").
  4. An emphasis on propagating the ideals and values of Judaism. Upon completion of a rigorous term of study, students are encouraged to seek employment in the field of Jewish education, often launching their own educational institutions themselves or with a partner.
  5. The omnisignifigance and complete subservience to "Daas Torah" as defined in the introduction to the 6-volume collection of H. Lebowitz's mussar lectures, "Chidushei Halev", as well as numerous public ethical discourses. This is the concept that everything is included in the Torah and the way that the Torah logic (i.e. Talmudic reasoning) works is the way that God's mind works; therefore one who has spent years dedicated to in depth Talmudic study has shaped his mind to think like the Torah/God and is thus able to apply the Torah's logic to all manner of situations.[7]
  6. The dress code is flexible in that they allow the students to wear colored shirts as opposed to white shirts, which are mandatory in most other Lithuanian Haredi Yeshivos.

Affiliates and branches by location

United States

Canada

Israel
  • Jerusalem area
    • Chofetz Chaim Jerusalem-CCJ
    • Zichron Aryeh Yerushalayim
    • Ramat Beit Shemesh - Yeshivas Nachalas Yisroel Yitzchok

Notable alumni

References
  1. "Petira of Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz ZT"L". Beyond BT. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  2. Horowitz, Rebbetzin Faigie. "Jewish Forest Hills: Resilient and resurgent". Hamodia Magazine. December 13, 2012, pp. 8–11.
  3. "unknown". Hamodia. 3 July 2013. p. C10. {{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  4. "Archived copy". www.5tjt.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Tiferes Dovid pp. 28-29 and particularly footnote 14
  6. Pinnacle of Creation "Anatomy of a Shmuess" pp. 17-19.
  7. "Chofetz Chaim: It's not just a Yeshiva. It's a way of life". theyeshivaworld.com. Retrieved 25 March 2016.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.