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Who are the greatest gedolei Roshei Hayeshiva in America today?
Nothing to do with the yeshiva he heads, just how he is as a mentch, the level of the shiur he gives, etc..The rav of the Troll Yeshiva is #1
Sorry yabia he isn’t a troll
To answer the OP,
Rav Shmuel kamenetsky
Rav meir hershkowitz, rav reuvain feinstein, rav elya ber wachtfogel, rav elya brudny, rav yosef savitsky, rav shlomo feivel shustal, rav motel dick, rav meir stern, to name a few that come to mind.
R Elya Brudny
Harav Shmuel Kamenetsky
+1 to those who nominate gedolim they are NOT following
Rav Jared Kushner, Rav Yossel Biden, Rav Benyomin Natanyahu, Rav Avigidor Liberman, Rav Yosef Liberman, just to name a few
other names who maybe the greatest Rosh Yeshiva today. Harav Benyomin Sanders, Harav Yshaya Schumer, Harav Gershon Nadler
l’havdel alphei havdalos
HaGaon HaRav Ahron Schachter shlit”a
HaGaon HaRav Shaul Alter shlit”a
HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein shlit”a
HaGaon HaRav Elimelech Biderman shlit”a@mod, a stupid question deserves a stupid answer
Ujm, he asked about american roshei yeshiva; i did forget to mention rav aharon shechter though
Also, rav elimelech biderman is a rosh yeshiva?
I noticed the American qualification only after my submission.
Good point; I don’t think Rav Meilich is a Rosh Yeshiva.
“The greatest” is a tough term to define.
Level of yiras shomayim (a mentsch) is something only G-d can determine. We can all tell stories about various people but some gedolim are so good at hiding their tzidkus we don’t even know stories about them.
Level of shiur is also a toughie as
A. there are very few people who go to every shiur to really compare
B. does anyone know how to rate a level of a shiur? If one person quotes 10 rishonim and achronim an hour and another quotes 15, does that make it a higher level shiur?I think a better gauge should be the influence they have on the American Orthodox community.
I would certainly add R. Aharon Lopiansky shlita and R. Hershel Schachter shlita to the top of the list.
BTW Influence is also determined by the number of followers (whether they were talmidim in yeshiva or not) they have and how strongly they follow the guidance of their leader.
Some of the names listed by other posters may be big talmidei chachachmim and given nice shiurim but few followers after they leave the shiur.
In some yeshivos a maggid shiur may have more influence on the present and past talmidim than the Rosh Yeshiva
You forget to list the great Roshei Yeshiva of Rabbeinu Itzchak Elchonon Theological Seminary who are manhig people in how to be a baal habos and strive for excellence in learning
The question was regarding roshei yeshiva, heads of yeshivos. While rabbi shechter, rabbi willig, and rav aharon kahn (especially the latter) are considerable people, they are not the heads of a yeshiva, but rather a university which has a judaic studies program.
Avirah if you want to be technical, every yeshiva that gives a college transcripts(AARTS) is technically the same thing. RIETS is a Yeshiva program that’s part of YU.
Avira > rather a university which has a judaic studies program.
I don’t think this is how they see themselves. I heard one of their leaders saying, not sure how seriously, that they fashioned one of their advance learning programs as an Masters degree to placate parents and so that law schools do not ask question – what did you do for these 2 years?!
As 1 says, other yeshivos also give transcripts. YU happens to on a more expensive side and a more advanced program.
#1: Are you forgetting the great Roshei Yeshivos of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah?
UJM maybe you’d like to list them but there’s quite a list of American rishwi yeshiva that got semicha from RIETS.
#1: Which current Roshei Yeshivos received smicha from YU?
I don’t think this is how they see themselves.
Joseph,
Are you comparing RIETS to YCT?
I see how you’re framing the question. For one, Rav Yitzchok (Yitzchak) Lichtenstein, Torah Vodaath.
Adding to that list:
R Gifter
R Avigdor MillerHow to professionally implement an idea for you?
Ujm – i don’t think it’s fair to compare the open apikorsim at ‘chovavei’ torah to rabbi shechter, rabbi willig and rav aharon kahn.
R’ Yaakov Bender shlita. He doesn’t give a regular shiur in the Beis Medrash, but the bond that he creates with his talmidim is unmatched.
#1: You earlier said that there’s “quite a list of American rishwi yeshiva that got semicha from RIETS”, yet now you could only list one current such Rosh Yeshiva, when asked. (The one you mentioned is a grandson of Rabbi J.B. Solovitchik.)
The YU of today, with its toeiva clubs (since the 1990’s) and all, is incomparable to the pre/postwar period when America had very few choices of Yeshivos –and YU, with all its faults even then, was one of the only options.
HaGaon R’ malkiel Kotler
HaGaon R’ Yerucham Olshin
and a couple of english born gedolim
HaGaon R’ Mattisyohu Salomon
HaGaon R’ Gershon Miller
HaGaon R’ Uren reich
UJM I just gave you a name and I know who his family is better than you. Nonetheless I backed it up. Legally a university has to make such accommodations. If an LGBT person came out with a suit against a lakewood yeshiva they would get into trouble.
To quote Rabbi David Silver (son of Harav Eliezer Silver TZ”L) stated to me personally a few times. I learned in YU before it was YU when it was Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitchok Elchanon. I don’t think based on the conversation I had with him that he considered YU in the current format to be the same makom Torah that he learned and received smicha from. (but I could be wrong, I never asked him that question specifically)
I think Rav Benyomin Sanders has more talmidim then all of the above mentioned
It is not always about quantity… 24000 early students of r Akiva were less successful than the later 5.
I heard a similar story about r Schwab refusing to give kibudim to non shomer shabbos people, majority of the congregation left, but modern Baltimore grew out of remaining small shul.
Chasidishe yeshivas don’t have roshei yeshivas?
Zushy, rav matisyohu, he should have a refuah shlaima, is a Mashgiach, and a big person, but to my knowledge was never a rosh yeshiva.
Lakewood roshei Yeshiva i assumed were self understood.
Reb E: good point. Rav Frankel of vayalipol, rav Ephraim wachsman, and rav Shmuel dishon come to mind, but I’m not very familiar.
Isn’t Rav Shmuel Dishon the Mashgiach (not R”Y) in Stolin?
The conspect of the RY being the yeshivisher equivlent to a chasidisher rebbe is a new conspect, like the past 30/40 years, prior to that people didnt travel to them in drove, they didnt take kivlach, they once asked a rosh yeshiva about a medical procedure and he answered gaay fraig ah doctor, they certainly didnt feer tish or cut hair of a three year old.
My contemporary from Chasan Sofer, HaRav Hagaon R’ Dovid Aryeh Ehrenfeld, Shlita.
Common, cultures merge. Someone chashuv wrote already 40 years ago saying that Lakewood is litvishe teachers with Hungarian students.
CS: Which Litvish Roshei Yeshivos take kvitlach? Extremely few, if any.
The Chazon Ish, who was no Chasidish Rebbe and isn’t from our Dor, gave medical advice and drew a diagram where to perform surgery.
rescue37,
YU was always part of Yeshiva College, which follows a more Hirschian model of Torah im Derech Eretz.
If there wouldn’t be YU, there wouldn’t be Touro, there wouldn’t be an Agudah COPE program, and litvish yeshivas and seminaries wouldn’t combine with pay for degree private colleges to get degrees. It’s always been the same but things changed. In the litvish world it became a stigma to affiliate yourself with a University.UJM there are bochurim in the closet in yeshivas. I heard stories that I won’t get into. So if you don’t think that there are bochurim struggling with this Yetzer Hara in the Daled Koslos of the best yeshivas, you just don’t have your finger on the pulse of where society is. Not everyone in YU agrees that there should be this club.
Legally today, if someone sued a Beis Midrash program that is an AARTS program or getting government funds that they don’t grant people certain rights, they would also be sued.
What does individual aveiros have to do with open chilul Hashem? Any yeshivoa would close down rather than accommodate such a chilul Hashem – a thousand times worse than the reason for the closing of the volozhin Yeshiva. Sometimes you need to close. YU wouldn’t close, because it doesn’t believe in the sanctity of its institution.
From where do you derive that if not for YU there wouldn’t be a cope program in agudah? Most litvishe boys went to college, but they went to Brooklyn college at night after yeshivah and held their nose. No one needed YU
Hirschian? Is that why rav hirsch’s community in Washington heights was the most vocal opponent of YU in the country? Give me a break. Rav hirsch wrote about secular studies being the hand maids of Torah while Norman lamm said that they’re basically equal.
1: Are you suggesting that UJM is in the “closet” and reveal his true identity or even thinking of coming out?? I find that highly unlikely. g
When we talk about colleges, we need to define the terms. 80 years ago, 3% of US 20 y.o. population was going to college. This was an elite thing. In 1970 maybe 30% of men and by 1990, 30% of women. Now, it is 60-70%.
So, first, an “average” American now goes to college and work prospects for those who do not are diminishing both in quantity and quality.
Second, college education is not what it was to be, 90% of it is simply preparing people for routine jobs, not engaging in medieval philosophy. So, issues are completely different from what R Feinstein, R Hutner, etc were confronting.
AAQ: Who wrote 40 years ago that Lakewood is litvishe teachers with Hungarian students?
#1: “UJM there are bochurim in the closet in yeshivas. I heard stories that I won’t get into. So if you don’t think that there are bochurim struggling with this Yetzer Hara in the Daled Koslos of the best yeshivas, you just don’t have your finger on the pulse of where society is. Not everyone in YU agrees that there should be this club.
Legally today, if someone sued a Beis Midrash program that is an AARTS program or getting government funds that they don’t grant people certain rights, they would also be sued.”
There are also bochorim that break Shabbos, there are bochorim that steal and there are bochorim that eat in a non-kosher restaurant when traveling away from Jewish population centers. Do you know of any Yeshiva with a Mechallel Shabbos Club, a Treif Tasting Club or a Thieves Club? How on earth can you justify or excuse any so-called “Yeshiva” tolerating for even one second (let alone funding!!) any club celebrating terrible sins?!?
“Not everyone in YU agrees that there should be this club.”!!? Are you blazing kidding us?! “Oh, some people in YU think we shouldn’t celebrate terrible sins even if others in YU (including students and the administration) do think we should celebrate and tolerate it.” That’s what you just said.
If a law is passed that universities must teach the New Testament, will YU start giving Shiurim on Yushke Pundrik?
Will they start having mandatory courses on Matthew, Mark and Luke, in accordance with the law?! “Bochorim, you must make sure you pass the next bechina on John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate and Paul of Tarsus if you hope to get a degree or smicha from Yeshiva University. Otherwise we could lose our government funding or even get sued.”Ujm,. A litvishe rosh yeshiva Ben litvishe Rosh yeshiva in Philadelphia
I think the problem with discussing movements and institutions, that one uses personal knowledge of one side and an external, based on papers or other lashon hara. No surprise, such fair comparison confirms your original bias.
So, to be fair, one needs to have personal experience in both, or be equally clueless about both! Or simply be a little more tolerant to other opinions.
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