משה רוזין

Rabbi Moshe Rosen (5631/1870 – 17 Tishrei 5718/1957), known by the name of his principal work Nezer HaKodesh, was a rav in Lithuania and afterwards in the United States, and president of the Agudat HaRabbanim of the United States and Canada. He was born in Bransk in the Grodno district to Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh of the Rosen family, in which there were many talmidei chachamim. He learned in the local school in Bransk, then in Bielsk under Rabbi Aryeh Leib Yellin and in Raszyn under Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Yaffe, and afterwards on his own; he was close to the rav of Bransk, Rabbi Meir Shalom HaKohen, author of Milchemet Shalom, and was known as a masmid.

On his marriage in 1893 to Hinda, daughter of Rabbi Hillel David Trivash, he learned in the Kovno kollel and received semichah from Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor and Rabbi Moshe Danishevsky. In 1897 he was appointed rav of Kvedarna in the district of Taurage in western Lithuania, where he remained despite offers from other communities. He was active on behalf of his community, working to save people from forced labor and from labor imposed on Shabbat, and he founded the Agudat HaRabbanim of Lithuania and stood at its head. During the First World War he labored much for the Jewish settlement in Lithuania. While in Kvedarna he was close to Rabbi Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, and was the mesader kiddushin at his wedding.

In 5688 he emigrated to the United States, served as rav in important communities there and was president of the Agudat HaRabbanim of North America. He wrote Divrei Sofrim, studies in halachah following the sugyot of Shas, first printed in Vilna in 5672; the teshuvot She’eilot Moshe on the four parts of Shulchan Aruch; Ohel Moshe, derashot on the parashiyot and the moadim, published by his son Rabbi Chaim; and the series Nezer HaKodesh on Shas, by which he became known, covering Zevachim, Menachot, Chullin, Bechorot, Temurah, Arachin, Keritot, Meilah, Tamid, Pesachim, Yoma, Makkot, Mikvaot and Niddah, with explanations and chiddushim in the Gemara and the Rishonim and conclusions in halachah. His son Rabbi Chaim Rosen was among the rabbanim of New York.