Shlomo Heiman (1892–1944) known informally as "Reb Shlomo", was a rabbi, Talmudist, and rosh yeshiva. He led some of the most prominent yeshivas in Europe and the United States.
Early life
Shlomo Heiman was born in
Paritsh,
Minsk in
Belarus to Michel Heiman, a rabbi. When he was 12, he went to the yeshiva in Kaminetz to study under Baruch Ber Lebowitz, with whom he was very close. In 1918, he married the daughter of Yochanon Rudensky of
Volozhin, the brother-in-law of Simcha Zelig Riger of Brisk, the dayan for the
Brisker Rav.
After his marriage, Lebowitz asked Heiman to be a lecturer at the yeshiva in Kaminetz, which by this time had been wandering from Slobodka to Krementchug. It was at this time that Heiman developed a reputation for being one of Lithuania's most outstanding . During World War I, he was briefly drafted into the Russian army. However, he still managed to review the entire tractate of Ketubot while serving on the front lines in the trench warfare.
After the war, Heiman began to deliver his Talmudic lectures in Ohel Torah of Baranowitz, under the leadership of Elchanan Wasserman. In 1927, at the request of Chaim Ozer Grodzensky of Vilnius, Heiman became the rosh yeshiva of the Ramailles Yeshiva, a position he held until 1935.
In the United States
In 1935, Heiman was invited to New York by Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, in order for him to come and lead Mesivta
Torah Vodaath. With Grodzensky's approval, Heiman accepted this position, thereby being spared the horrors of
the Holocaust. During Heiman's tenure at Torah Vodaath, the yeshiva experienced a period of significant growth.
[ Jewish Professionals Institute (JPI) - Holocaust Thesis Chapter 6 at www.jpi.org]
Confronted with what he considered to be the ardent secularism of America, which threatened to smother any vestige of the Haredi Judaism way of life, Heiman once remarked that one whose own children do not pursue the path of Torah can compensate by teaching Torah to the children of others.[ Parshat Bamidbar 5763 - OU Torah Insights Project at www.ou.org]
Death
Heiman died in 1944, at the age of 52. He was succeeded in the Ramailles yeshiva by Yisroel Zev Gustman, and in Torah Vodaath by
Reuven Grozovsky.
Works
A two-volume compendium of Heiman's
chidush,
Chiddushei Rabbi Shlomo, was printed after his death (in 1966), based on his own writings, and incorporating notes of his students. It was released by Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, one of Heiman's greatest students. It is widely used in many yeshivos, and is considered a basic text among late
acharonim. A later book,
Shiurei Rabbi Shlomo ('The Lectures of Rabbi Shlomo), printed from the notes of Heiman's students, contains many lectures and novellae not published in
Chidushei Rabbi Shlomo. A collection of some of Heiman's original thoughts on the Bible, as well as a few of his ethical discourses has also been published.
Notable students
Sources
