Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Mir)

Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel (12 March 1943 – 8 November 2011) was an American-born Haredi Litvish rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel.

To accommodate the ever-increasing enrollment, Finkel fund-raised for and constructed four new buildings in addition to the original yeshiva building constructed by Reb Leizer Yudel in 1949.

He assigned separate battei medrash (study halls) for each group of students, making one for Israeli students, one for Americans, one for those who wished to study without a daily shiur, and so on.

In 1957, at the age of 14, he accompanied his parents on a trip to Israel to visit the holy sites and his father's family.

His great-uncle, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel ("Reb Leizer Yudel"), the Mir rosh yeshiva, recognized his ability to think clearly and have patience for studying, and asked his parents to let him stay and study in his yeshiva.

Finkel remained at the Mir for eight months, studying with top-notch chavrutas (study partners) to develop his skills.

He returned to Chicago to take his secondary education at the co-ed, Modern Orthodox Ida Crown Jewish Academy, where he was president of the student council and a starting centerfielder for the baseball team.

At the age of 17, Finkel returned to Jerusalem to learn at the Mir under the guidance of his great-uncle.

He learned diligently for the next six years.

With one of his chavrutas, Rabbi Zundel Kroizer, he completed the entire Talmud each year.

When Reb Finkel first came to the Mir at the age of 17 in 1960, enrollment was less than 200 students, of which 75 percent were avreichim (married students) and 25 percent were undergraduates.

In the summer of 1964 Finkel married Reb Leizer Yudel's granddaughter, Leah, his second cousin and the eldest daughter of Rabbi Binyomin Beinush Finkel, who was his father's first cousin.

He and his wife had 11 children.

He continued to learn with chavrutas at all hours, stopping at 2 a.m.; his wife would bring their children to visit him at the yeshiva so he wouldn't have to take the time to walk home.

He also began delivering shiurim in the yeshiva, which was headed by his father-in-law after the death of Reb Leizer Yudel in 1965.

After his parents immigrated to Israel in 1973, his mother published a best-selling kosher cookbook.

Reb Finkel grew up as a "typical American Jewish boy" who enjoyed playing basketball and baseball.

He was known as Nathan in school and Natie to his friends.

He was one of the first students of the Central Park Hebrew Day School (later renamed Arie Crown Day School) and received after-school tutoring in Torah studies from Rabbi Yehoshua Levinson.

During his tenure from 1990 until his death in 2011, the Mir Yeshiva grew into the largest yeshiva in Israel with nearly 6,000 undergraduate students and over 1,600 avreichim (married students).

According to one estimate, he taught 25,000 students over his lifetime.

He continued to work during the last 28 years of his life, when he had Parkinson's disease, experiencing involuntary spasms and slurred speech.

He raised an estimated US$500 million for the Mir during his tenure as rosh yeshiva.

He was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah.

He was known for his Torah erudition and his warmth and concern for his students.

Finkel was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Finkel and his wife, Sara Rosenblum, who ran a kosher catering business.

His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Finkel, was a mashgiach ruchani at the Hebron yeshiva in Israel, and his paternal great-grandfather was the Alter of Slabodka, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, after whom he was named.

He had one brother, Gedaliah, who now teaches at the Mir yeshiva.

Upon the death of his father-in-law on 13 February 1990, Finkel was named rosh yeshiva of the Mir together with Rabbi Refoel Shmuelevitz (son of former Mir rosh yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz).

Finkel took on the financial responsibility for the yeshiva.

When he became rosh yeshiva in 1990, enrollment stood at approximately 1,200 students.

At the time of his death, enrollment reached nearly 6,000 undergraduates and over 1,600 avreichim.

This growth is credited to Finkel's open-door policy as rosh yeshiva: whoever wished to learn at the Mir was welcome.

Enrollment now includes Litvish, Hasidic, Ashkenazi, Sephardi and baalei teshuva students from Israel, the United States and Europe.

As enrollment continued to climb, several students of the main maggidei shiur (lecturers) began delivering shiurim in English, and Finkel raised the funds to open a new beis medrash in 2006 for these shiurim too.

Yet another beis medrash was built in recent years.

The Mir also opened a yeshiva gedola for Israeli students in the Brachfeld neighborhood of Modi'in Illit where Finkel gave shiurim and occasional shmuessen (musar talks), and a yeshiva ketana in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem.

In an unusual move for a Litvish yeshiva, Finkel accepted 800 Hasidic students and allowed them to learn in their own chabura and follow their own customs, including a fartug (pre-dawn study session) before morning prayers.

This group, known as Chaburas Ameilim BaTorah (the "Toiling in Torah" Study Group), was housed in a different neighborhood, but the week before his death, Finkel moved them onto Mir yeshiva premises.

He participated in their Thursday-night study sessions as well as their seudot mitzvah (festival meals) marking a siyum, and Hanukkah parties.