Sholom Schwadron

Rabbi Yitzchak Schwadron was widowed of his first wife, Chaya Leah, in 1898, leaving him with nine children.

In 1903 he immigrated to Palestine with four of his children and remarried Freida, who raised the orphans as her own.

Yitzchak and Freida Schwadron had six more children together.

Their son Sholom, born a year and a half after the death of the Maharsham, was named after his illustrious grandfather.

Rabbi Yitzchak Schwadron died at the age of 63, leaving Freida a widow at the age of 35 and young Sholom an orphan at the age of 7.

Freida struggled to support her young children, as well as her sickly brother who lived with her, by selling bread door to door.

At night she found time to recite Psalms, and share with her children their father's Torah legacy.

Schwadron later published some of his father's Torah thoughts in the introductions to his books, Oholei Shem and Daas Torah Maharsham (Part II).

For a few years, Sholom was forced to live at the Diskin Orphanage in Jerusalem.

At the age of 12 he entered Yeshivat Tzion under Rabbi Yaakov Katzenelenbogen.

At the age of 15 he entered the Lomza Yeshiva in Petach Tikva under Rabbi Eliyahu Dushnitzer.

Despite his family privation, Rabbi Schwadron developed into a Torah scholar of note.

By the age of 18 he was learning 700 pages of Gemara every semester at the Hebron yeshiva, which had relocated to Jerusalem after the 1929 Hebron massacre.

In the seven years that he studied at Hebron yeshiva, he became the talmid muvhak (close student) of the mashgiach ruchani, Rabbi Leib Chasman.

He also studied under Rabbi Elya Lopian, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, and Rabbi Meir Chodosh.

On the Friday of Hanukkah 1936, Rabbi Schwadron married Leah Auerbach, daughter of Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, rosh yeshiva of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva.

Rabbi Auerbach was a well-known Jerusalem personality whose extreme poverty was only matched by his love of Torah and Torah scholars.

A story from the early days of Rabbi Schwadron's marriage illustrates the dire poverty found in the Auerbach household.

As part of the dowry agreement, Rabbi Auerbach and his wife committed to supporting their son-in-law for the first three years of his marriage.

On the first day, he came to eat breakfast and was served black bread, cream, a cup of coffee and halva by his mother-in-law.

Rabbi Schwadron ate the meal, thanked his mother-in-law, and went to learn.

The next morning, he realized that his wife hadn't joined him and asked where she was.

"Oh, she had to go somewhere," Rebbetzin Auerbach replied.

On the third morning, when his wife still didn't join him, Rabbi Schwadron became worried and demanded to know what was going on.

His mother-in-law tearfully admitted that they had agreed to support him, but had no money to support her too.

Rabbi Schwadron's wife would come in after he left and make do with bread and water for breakfast.

Rabbi Schwadron founded his own home on simplicity and lack of luxury.

He and his family lived in a small, two-room apartment in the Sha'arei Hesed neighborhood of Jerusalem, which lacked a refrigerator, a bathtub, a washing machine or running water.

Water was drawn from a nearby well.

The kitchen, located in the courtyard, was so small that it did not fulfill the halachic requirement for a mezuzah.

Yet despite the lack of space and conveniences, the family was known for sharing everything it had with drop-in visitors and indigent guests.

Rabbi Schwadron was the first son-in-law of Rabbi Auerbach.

He was the brother-in-law of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Kol Torah in Bayit Vegan, with whom he enjoyed a long and productive relationship as learning partners and friends, and Rabbi Simcha Bunim Leizerson, founding president of the Chinuch Atzmai school system.

Sholom Mordechai Hakohen Schwadron (הרב שלום מרדכי הכהן שבדרון) (1912–21 December 1997) was a Haredi rabbi and orator.

He was known as the "Maggid of Jerusalem" for his fiery, inspirational mussar talks.

Some of the stories he told about the character and conduct of Torah leaders and tzadikim of previous generations were incorporated in the "Maggid" series of books by Rabbi Paysach Krohn, whom Rabbi Schwadron mentored.

Rabbi Schwadron was born in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem to Rabbi Yitzchak and Freida Schwadron.

His father was formerly the av beis din (head of the rabbinical court) of Khotymyr.

He was the son of Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Schwadron, a leading halachic authority known by the Hebrew acronym Maharsham.

This was his father's second marriage.