הרב אליעזר יהודה פינקל

Rav Eliezer Yehudah Finkel (5637/1877–19 Tammuz 5725/1965), known in the yeshiva world as Rav Leizer Yudel, was the Rosh Yeshiva of Mir in Poland and the one who planted it anew in Eretz Yisrael. Born in Kelm to Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka, he grew up in Slabodka, where his father founded the yeshiva Knesset Yisrael. He learned in Telz under Rav Eliezer Gordon and Rav Shimon Shkop, and in Brisk under Rav Chaim Soloveitchik; he was among the fourteen talmidim his father sent to the Ridvaz’s new yeshiva in Slutzk, learned bechavruta with Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz in Halusk, and sat in the kollel kodashim in Radin, in the daled amot of the Chofetz Chaim.

When his wanderings brought him to Mir, the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Eliyahu Baruch Kamai, recognized him at once and took him as a chatan for his daughter Malka; they married on Tu BiShvat 5663/1903, and he said his first shiur in the yeshiva on the first light of Chanukah 5667/1906. In the First World War he went into exile with the yeshiva to Stoibtz and Poltava, and on his father-in-law’s petirah at the war’s end he became Rosh Yeshiva. Between the wars the Mir grew to close to five hundred bachurim from across the world, and he chose his talmid Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz as a chatan.

With the outbreak of the Second World War he fled to Vilna, and in 5701/1941 reached Eretz Yisrael, while the yeshiva itself wandered to Kobe and Shanghai. In Yerushalayim he refounded the Mir with a handful of advanced talmidim, and when bnei hayeshiva of the exile arrived in 5706/1946 he raised its central building and stood at its head for twenty-one years; Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz came to Yerushalayim to lead the yeshiva at his side. His son Rav Avraham Meir was murdered with his family in the Warsaw ghetto, and in his grief Rav Leizer Yudel gave up eating meat for the remaining twenty-five years of his life.

When he fell gravely ill in 5724/1963 the name Chizkiyahu was added to his own, and all three names were carved on his matzeivah. His chiddushim were printed as Divrei Eliezer in two volumes, and a yearly memorial kovetz, Yad Eliezer, filled with chiddushim of bnei hayeshiva, appears on his yahrtzeit. He was niftar on 19 Tammuz 5725/1965 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot in Yerushalayim; his son Rav Beinish Finkel later stood at the head of Mir Yerushalayim after Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz.