הרב שלום מרדכי שבדרון

Rav Shalom Mordechai HaKohen Schwadron (27 Nisan 5595/1835–16 Shevat 5671/1911), the Maharsham of Berzhan, was the great posek of Galicia in his generation, to whom halachic questions streamed from across Europe. Born in the village of Bieniow near Zlotchov, he was famed from childhood for prodigious hasmadah — it is told that he learned sixteen hours a day, and that by thirty-nine he had finished the Tur a hundred and one times. A chassid in his ways, he was drawn in his youth to Rav Shalom of Belz and later to the rebbes of Stratin, Zidichov and Chortkov. Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson of Lvov gave him semicha at a remarkably young age.

He long refused the rabbanut, supporting himself in trade until reverses forced him to accept a position — and the kehillot gained what commerce lost. He served in Potok-Zloty, Yazlovitz and Butchatch, and from 5641 as rav of Berzhan, where he founded the yeshiva Tushia and sat until his last day. His psak was fresh and fearless: he permitted machine matzot though he stood in the camp of the chassidim, and answered the new questions of the age — electricity, medicine, technology — consulting physicians and experts in their fields; his teshuvah holding that turning on electric light on Shabbat involves no Torah-level melachah of fire became a famous landmark of the discussion. Before every meal he would review hilchot netilat yadayim, and every motzaei Shabbat he made a siyum on masechet Shabbat and Eruvin, which he reviewed weekly.

His She’eilot u’Teshuvot Maharsham, in ten volumes holding over 2,300 teshuvot, remains a pillar of practical psak; beside it stand Daat Torah on Shulchan Aruch, Mishpat Shalom on Choshen Mishpat, Gilui Daat, Darchei Shalom and Techeilet Mordechai. His grandson and namesake, Rav Shalom Schwadron, the famed maggid of Yerushalayim, brought many of his sefarim to print.