- Pesach Stein
Rabbi Pesach Yitzhak Stein (1918 - 2002) was a renowned
Rosh Yeshiva at theTelz Yeshiva inCleveland, Ohio .Biography
Stein was born in
Breinsk in 1918. His father, RabbiAharon Shmuel Stein , was the head of the BreinskBeth Din and a student of RabbiShimon Shkop , who was thesandek at Pesach Yitzchok's bris.Stein studied at the
yeshiva in Breinsk, and later at the Slonim Yeshiva under Rabbi Shabsi Yogel.In 1936 Stein went to study in the Mir Yeshiva in Poland, where he formed a close relationship with the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel With the start of
World War II , Stein fled with the Mir Yeshiva toVilna and then toShanghai , where he spent the remainder of the war. During this time, Stein formed a relationship with the Mashgiach, RabbiYechezkel Levenstein .Stein was the only member of his family who survived the
Holocaust . His parents and three brothers were killed by the Nazis. After the war, he joined the remainder of the Mir yeshiva students inNew York , where the yeshiva had re-opened. For a short period, he joined a group of students who went toCincinnati, Ohio , where RabbiEliezer Silver had founded a yeshiva.In 1948, Stein married the daughter of Rabbi
Zalman Bloch , who had been the "menahel ruchani" of the Telz Yeshiva inLithuania .Shortly after his marriage, Stein began to deliver
shiur im at the Telz Yeshiva. At the time, Rabbi Stein was the only rosh yeshiva not to have studied in Telz and so his methodology and approach toTalmudic analysis were unique to the yeshiva.In 1988, Stein's oldest son, Rabbi Shmuel Zalman, died at the age of 38. He was the author of "Pri Shmuel", and delivered a shiur at the Heichal HaTorah Yeshiva in
Jerusalem .Stein died on Friday,
10 May 2002 (28Iyar ). He was buried on theMount of Olives beside his son, Shmuel Zalman.He is survived by a son, Rabbi Aaron Stein, rosh yeshiva at
Or Hameir Yeshiva inPeekskill, New York . One of his daughters is married to Rabbi Yisroel Ginsburg, a rosh yeshiva at theYeshiva of Staten Island , and the other is married to Rabbi Avraham Doweck, amaggid shiur at the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland.Published works
Stein's students published his Talmudic shiurim in pamphlets and other forms, among them a stenciled three-volume edition called "Shiurei HaRav Pesach Stein" (Lessons of Rabbi Pesach Stein). As the lectures increased, Stein responded to his students' requests and edited the pamphlets, reprinting them as a series of books called "Likutei Shiurim" (Collected Lessons).
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