הרב שלמה היימן

Rav Refael Chaim Shlomo Heiman (c. 5652/1892–17 Kislev 5705/1944) was one of the great roshei yeshiva of Lita, and in his last decade the rosh yeshiva of Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn. Born in Paritch, near Minsk (now Belorussia), to Rav Yechiel Michel Heiman, he was known in his youth as the iluy of Paritch. He learned under Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz in Yeshivat Knesset Beit Yitzchak, to whom he remained deeply attached, and in the Chofetz Chaim‘s yeshiva in Radin. In 1918 he married the daughter of Rav Yochanan Rudensky of Volozhin.

He said shiurim in the yeshivot of Kremenchug and Smilovitz, and in 5683/1923 Rav Elchonon Wasserman appointed him to say shiur in Ohel Torah of Baranovich. In 5687/1927, at the request of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, he took the helm of the storied Ramailes yeshiva in Vilna. When Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn sought a rosh yeshiva in 1935, Rav Chaim Ozer again pointed to Rav Shlomo, and Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz brought him to America — where the yeshiva flourished under him, and where a generation of American bnei Torah first tasted the derech of the great Litvishe yeshivot. He served as well on the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudat Yisrael in America.

He was niftar on 17 Kislev 5705 (1944); Rav Reuven Grozovsky succeeded him at Torah Vodaath. His Torah is learned to this day in Chiddushei Rabbi Shlomo, gathered by his talmidim and expanded by Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, one of the great talmidim he raised — a chevra that also included Rav Simcha Schustal and Rav Shlomo Carlebach.