Rav Menashe Klein Ungvarer Rav (Tishrei 29, 5771 / 2010 - 14th Yahrzeit)
Rav Menashe Klein was born on the first of Nissan 5685/1925 in the town of Ungvar. His father, Rav Eliezer Zev Klein, was renowned for never speaking about idle matters. Already as a child, he began learning Torah from the Dayan of Dobrony. Even before his bar mitzva, he accustomed himself to sleeping on a straw-filled sack and to toiling in Torah in poverty. He later learned under Rav Yisrael Menachem Alter Chaim Hoffman, the Rav of Bendikovitz. He began his day at dawn with immersing in a mikva, which was often covered with ice.
Still before his bar mitzva, he began attending the famous Yeshiva of Rav Yosef Elimelech Kahana. He was a talmid of Rav Chaim Tzvi Manheimer, himself a talmid of the Chasam Sofer. Throughout his life, Rav Klein considered himself a third-generation talmid of the Chasam Sofer.
During the Holocaust, he was deported to the ghettos and the concentration camps together with Rav Kahana. His parents and most of his family were murdered by the Nazis. Yet, despite his losses, his faith was rock-solid.
While in a concentration camp, he vowed that if he were to survive he would devote his life to Harbotzas Torah. Right after the war, while still in a refugee camp in Europe, he began helping his brethren spiritually by disseminating Torah, establishing a kosher kitchen and facilitating other religious needs.
In the capacity of his work, he came into contact with the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, the Shefa Chaim. From that point on he considered himself a Chassid of the Rebbe. They shared a very close relationship.
In 5706/1946, he immigrated to America and renewed his contacts with the Rebbe, who chose him to head Yeshivas She’aris Hapleita, which he founded.
Rav Menashe was the only person to receive semicha from the Shefa Chaim. In America, he married the Rebbetzin, the daughter of Rav Dovid Shlomo Frankel, author of Be’er Dovid, who had served as a Dayan in Debrecen. The Rebbetzin served at his side devotedly for the rest of his life.
In 5709/1949, he began serving as Rav in the Liadi community in Williamsburg, at which time his tremendous abilities as a Rav and posek became apparent. American Jewry discovered that the new, young Rav among them personified the image of a Rav from prewar Europe.
Within a short time, his reputation spread. He was in close contact with Gedolim such as Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yonoson Steif, Rav Eliyohu Henkin, Rav Aharon Kotler, the Tzelemer Rav, zecher tzaddikim livracha, and others.
In 5723/1963, he was appointed chairman of the Va’ad Halachah of Igud HaRabbanim. Already, as a young man, he was consulted on complex halachic issues. Anyone perusing his early teshuvos is awestruck by the critical issues on which he was asked to rule.
In 5718/1958, he published his sefer Mishneh Halochos, a commentary on the seforim of the Ba’al Halochos Gedolos (Beha”g) on Masechtos Kesubos, Nedorim and Nozir. At the end of the sefer, he printed the first volume of responsa with the same name as the sefer. It eventually evolved into his landmark work of responsa that comprised thousands of she’eilos and teshuvos in all areas of halocha. In 5719/1959, the second volume was released, followed a year later by the third volume. The set now numbers eighteen volumes (the last was released posthumously).
In Boro Park, Rav Menashe established his community, Kehillas Ungvar, and opened Yeshiva Bais She’arim.
Rav Menashe lived primarily in the United States, paying visits to Eretz Yisrael. But in his last years, he settled in Kiryat Ungvar, in Yerushalayim.
Rav Menashe was niftar on the twenty-ninth of Elul, Erev Rosh HaShana, 5771/2011, at the age of eighty-six, after a short illness. He was buried in Tzefas, in the ancient cemetery near the tziyun of his grandfather, Rav Amram Chasida, and near the kever of the Alshich and a short distance away from the kevorim of the Arizal and the Bais Yosef, which the Rav himself had devotedly worked to restore. No one had been buried in this part of the cemetery for more than a hundred years.
Zecher tzaddik livrachah.
