הרב דוד פוברסקי

Rav Yehoshua Dovid Povarsky (10 Shevat 5662/1902–6 Adar 5759/1999) was rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak for more than fifty years. Born in Lyuban in Russia to Rav Shalom, he learned in his youth in the Slutzk yeshiva under Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. When the First World War broke out he crossed the border to reach the exiled Mir Yeshiva in Poltava using the passport of a man named Yehoshua Povarsky — the name he carried from then on, and which stands on the shaar of his sefer Yeshuat David. In Mir he was shaped above all by the mashgiach, Rav Yeruchom Levovitz; he learned as well in the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Lithuania under Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman and in Kelm, and was counted all his life a ben of the Kelm school.

In 5690/1930 he married Tzipporah, daughter of Rav Dov Kreiser, of the roshei yeshiva of Kletzk; Rav Aryeh Leib Malin was his brother-in-law. After his marriage he joined the kollel of Rav Elchonon Wasserman in Baranovich, at times saying shiurim in his yeshiva, and there brought out the first volume of Yeshuat David. In 5698/1938 he was invited to give shiurim at Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin and spent eight days there; before he could decide on the position, the Second World War broke out.

In 5701/1941 he reached Eretz Yisrael with his family and taught at the Achei Temimim yeshiva in Tel Aviv. In Elul 5704/1944 he answered Rav Kahaneman’s call to serve as rosh yeshiva of the rebuilt Ponevezh in Bnei Brak alongside Rav Shmuel Rozovsky, bringing with him talmidim including Rav Mordechai Shlomo Berman, later himself a rosh yeshiva there. He kept far from public affairs, giving his years to the shiur and the talmidim. Beside Yeshuat David, arranged on the order of the Shulchan Aruch, his shiurim on the masechtot were printed as Shiurei Rav Dovid and his mussar discourses as Yishmeru Daat. He was niftar on 6 Adar 5759/1999; his eldest son, Rav Baruch Dov Povarsky, succeeded him as rosh yeshiva, and the Ramat David neighborhood in Bnei Brak carries his name.