הרב חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי

Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (9 Elul 5623/1863–5 Av 5700/1940), known by his sefer as the Achiezer, was the posek of Lithuanian Jewry before the churban and the address of the world’s kehillot for over fifty years from his seat in Vilna. He was born in Ivye, a small town near Vilna, where his father Rav Dovid Shlomo — and his grandfather before him — served as rav for decades. The “iluy of Ivye” was sent at twelve to the perushim of Eishyshok, and at fifteen entered Volozhin, where he learned in the shiur of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk — a talmid-chaver whose friendship lasted all their lives. At twenty he married Leah, daughter of Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski, dayan of Vilna and son-in-law of Rav Yisrael Salanter; when his father-in-law was suddenly niftar in 5647/1887, the young rav of twenty-three was recognized in his place, and from then on he stood at the head of Torah Vilna. Since Vilna from 1791 had kept the custom of appointing no official rav, he carried the formal title only from the compromise of 5692/1932, serving alongside Rav Yitzchak Rubinstein — the spiritual and halachic leadership resting with him.

In his beit midrash he gathered a kibbutz of gifted young men, “the kibbutz of Rav Chaim Ozer,” from which came roshei yeshiva and rabbanim across the world — Rav Shlomo Polachek, Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, Rav Eliezer Silver, Rav Moshe Shatzkes, Rav Reuven Katz and others. He was among the founders of Agudat Yisrael at Kattowitz in 5672/1912 and the first head of its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and a founder and moving spirit of the Vaad HaYeshivot in Vilna from 5684/1924, which sustained the yeshivot of the region in body and spirit. After the passing of his first wife he married Yacha, daughter of Rav Meir Atlas, rav of Shavel, becoming a brother-in-law of Rav Elchonon Wasserman.

His Achiezer, teshuvot first published in 5682/1922, is learned for its long, lamdanut-rich analysis of the sugya — drawing lines between tannaim, amoraim and poskim across the Shas until scattered dinim stand revealed as one shitah — with Rabbi Akiva Eiger cited on many a page. The rabbanim of the generation leaned on his word: when the German decree against shechitah came and some sought to permit stunning beforehand, his ruling to forbid carried the poskim with it, and his chidush in hilchot geirut — that a ger whose kabbalat mitzvot is sincere may be accepted even where beit din expects he will stumble in certain aveirot out of appetite — became a foundation for batei din.

In the first year of the war, refugee bnei yeshivot streamed into Vilna, and Rav Chaim Ozer, already ill, labored to settle the uprooted yeshivot of Poland in Lithuanian towns and to obtain certificates for the Mir and Kamenitz yeshivot seeking Eretz Yisrael — though the certificate Rav Meir Bar-Ilan sent for the Rav himself went unused. He was niftar of his illness on 5 Av 5700/1940 at seventy-six and rests in the new cemetery of Vilna; Yeshivat Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer and the Neve Achiezer neighborhood in Bnei Brak carry his name.