By Tzivia Meth
A born genius who stared down the Russian authorities. A brilliant writer whose Chazon Yechezkel has become the classic commentary on Tosefta. The leader of Vaad Hayeshivos in Eretz Yisrael.
For all the titles Rav Yechezkel Abramsky held in his life perhaps the one with the most enduring influence was Chief Dayan in the London Beis Din — a position he only accepted after ensuring that he would be able to raise the standards of halachah for all of British Jewry.
London 1935.
The winds blowing from Germany bear increasingly frightening news. Those emanating from the Soviet Union bring tidings of Communism’s tightening grip over Yiddishkeit. British Jews are apprehensive at the darkness all around them but are focused on filling the vacant seat of chief dayan on the London Beis Din. It seems almost impossible to satisfy all the factions involved in the decision with the growing religiously conservative immigrant community demanding a greater voice in communal policy and the powerful left-wing establishment attempting to maintain the status quo without fracturing the community. The chief dayan must maintain the beis din’s grandeur pleasing everyone — but bowing to no one. His ideology and policies will shape British Jewry’s present and future.
Possible candidates include such luminaries as Rabbi Dr. Isaac Herzog future chief rabbi of Israel and Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg the Seridei Eish. One name keeps recurring: Rav Yechezkel Abramsky a recent émigré from Communist Russia where he narrowly escaped a death sentence for teaching and disseminating Torah. His consideration for the position is an enigma to many as his minimal English and his ultra-right-wing hashkafos pose a marked contrast with the United Synagogue’s centrist religious positions.
Rav Abramsky himself balks when he learns of the existing halachic leniencies and the pressure to maintain them. Ultimately in a prescient gamble Rav Abramsky accepts the position forever changing the spiritual map of British Jewry.
Trouble Zones
While the Ashkenazic community in London dates back to the late 17th century the formal communal organization known as United Synagogue was founded in 1870. It was a unique community model in that its members maintained only Orthodox rabbis and standards while many communities in central Europe at the time were affiliating with the Reform movement.
Historian Dr. Miri Freud-Kandel points out that because British Jews who wanted to assimilate were not required to join the official community those Jews who were affiliated with the United Synagogue were favorably disposed toward tradition. This situation was in marked contrast to most of Continental Europe where nonreligious Jews were required to join the official community and many of them voted for Reform communal standards.
While this structure maintained basic Orthodox standards throughout the country and kept a measure of unity in the Jewish community it was not without its own challenges. The London Beis Din which was under the jurisdiction of the United Synagogue was only able to enforce halachic standards — particularly related to kashrus — that Eastern European immigrants arriving toward the end of the 19th century considered to be below par.
In 1891 for instance a shechitah controversy impelled the immigrant community to form their own shechitah supervision. Over the next few decades the London Beis Din improved many of its kashrus standards but lack of nikkur proved a persistent problem plaguing beis din–certified butcher shops. Nikkur is the process of removing the gid hanasheh and forbidden fats from hindquarter meat.
Overall the United Synagogue succeeded in remaining Orthodox but at a cost: It was forced to rely on leniencies that are usually reserved for extenuating circumstances. Rav Yechezkel Abramsky stepped into this breach with courage foresight and a regal personality renewing the beis din’s halachic rigor — and thereby its prestige — throughout the world.
The Iluy from Most
Rav Yechezkel Alter Abramsky whose 40th yahrtzeit was on 24 Elul was born in 1886 in Dashkovtsy Lithuania a tiny town without even a minyan of Jews. His father Mordechai Zalman was a timber merchant but the family was so poverty-stricken that Rav Abramsky would stand in sefarim stores for hours (with the owner’s permission) to memorize sources from sefarim he couldn’t afford to buy. Upon completing cheder in the nearby town of Most Rav Yechezkel studied in the yeshivos of Novardok Telz Ramailes Slabodka and Brisk where he earned a reputation as “the illui (genius) from Most.”
After marrying Reizel Jerusalimsky at the age of 23 Rav Abramsky served as rabbi in the
