Gershon Edelstein

Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein (18 April 1923 – 30 May 2023) was a Soviet-born Israeli rabbi who was rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, president of the Vaad Hayeshivos, and the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party in Israel.

He was widely considered to be a Gadol Hador by the Litvish community.

Gershon Edelstein was born in the town of Shumyatch near Smolensk, in the Soviet Union (now Russia), to Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Edelstein and Miriam Mobshovich.

Zvi Edelstein was the son of Rabbi Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein, author of Ben Aryeh on Shas.

Miriam's father, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Mobshovich, was rabbi of Malstovka (Krasnopillia).

His mother obtained forged birth certificates for her sons stating that they were three years younger so they would not have to attend a school run by Yevsektzia, the extremely anti-semitic branch of the Communist Party.

He studied with Rabbi Zalman Leib Estolin.

When his mother was ill with typhus, he and his younger brother, Yaakov, were sent to stay with his aunt, Rivka Tzvia Paz, in the city of Klimovich (Klimavichy), where they studied Torah secretly.

There they received the news of their mother's death.

Rabbi Edelstein served as ba'al tekiya (shofar-blower) at the Ponevezh yeshiva from 1945 onward.

In 2003, he joined the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Great Torah [Sages]) of the Degel HaTorah political party.

During his tenure in the Moetzes, Rabbi Edelstein returned Litvish (non-Chasidic) control over Chassidic community in Israel to the Council, as there had been during Rav Elazar Menachem Shach's tenure in it.

In particular, Edelstein imposed his opinion over the Rebbe of Ger, causing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf not to join the Israeli political-security cabinet; and over the Rebbe of Belz's plan to integrate basic secular studies into Chassidic educational institutions.

In the latter example, Edelstein emphatically announced that Degel Hatorah would split from UTJ (the coalition between Degel Hatorah and Agudas Yisrael) if they did not submit to his objection.

For the few years prior to this, Agudas Yisrael - whose members are predominantly Chassidim - acted politically independent from the Litvish Gedolim.

Throughout his career, Rabbi Edelstein voiced strong opposition against incorporating secular studies into Charedi educational institutions, and advocated co-existence between the Chareidi and secular (Chiloni) sectors of the Israeli public.

During Covid, he opposed public gatherings, even in religious contexts, and supported vaccination efforts.

After Aharon Leib Shteinman, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah political party, died in 2017, Edelstein became the new leader alongside Chaim Kanievsky.

After Kanievsky's death in 2022, Edelstein became the sole leader until his own death.

He was also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel.

Rabbi Edelstein was admitted to the Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center during Shavuot of 2023, due to shortness of breath.

Hours before his death, Rabbi Edelstein delivered his final Talmudic lecture to a handful of students at his hospital bedside.

Edelstein died in Bnei Brak on 30 May 2023, at the age of 100, from heart-related problems.

His funeral was attended by approximately 200,000 people.