הרב שלמה זלמן אויערבך

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (23 Tammuz 5670/1910–20 Adar I 5755/1995) was the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Kol Torah in Yerushalayim and among the foremost poskim of the twentieth century. He was the first child born in Sha’arei Chesed, the Yerushalayim neighborhood founded by his mother’s father, Rav Shlomo Zalman Porush, for whom he was named. His father, Rav Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, headed the yeshiva of mekubalim Shaar HaShamayim, and the family descended from the Toldot Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye. He learned in Etz Chaim, where he became the talmid muvhak of Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, and at twenty-four published Meorei Eish (5695/1935), the first sefer ever written on electricity in hilchot Shabbat, crowned with haskamot from Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, and Rav Isser Zalman himself.

After his marriage to Chaya Rivka Ruchamkin in 5690/1930 he learned in the kollel of Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, “Midrash Bnei Tzion,” which was given over to seder Zeraim and the mitzvot that depend on the Land; from that learning came Ma’adanei Eretz on shevi’it (5704/1944) and on terumot and maasrot (5712/1952). In Adar 5709/1949 he was appointed rosh yeshiva of Kol Torah, and he carried the yeshiva for forty-six years, to his last day, all the while living in Sha’arei Chesed, where he was born. Though offered the rabbanut of Yerushalayim and a seat on the Beit Din HaGadol, he never agreed to take any rabbinic office beyond his yeshiva.

His psak joined straight sevara with a rare command of the modern world, and he became the halachic address of the generation for medicine and technology. To fix the halachah he even set up measurements and experiments — on the moment of death, and on the heat of yad soledet bo, which he set at no less than 46 degrees, where the Chazon Ish held one must already take account from 40. His rulings stand behind Rav Yehoshua Neuwirth’s Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah and Professor Avraham S. Avraham’s Nishmat Avraham; his own teshuvot were gathered in Minchat Shlomo, and he served as nasi of the national center for taharat hamishpachah. Famed for his gentleness and the light of his face to every man, he was accepted across every camp of Torah Jewry; Rav Kook, who had been mesader kiddushin at his chuppah, he called “the mara d’atra of Eretz Yisrael.”

He was niftar on 20 Adar I 5755/1995, and some three hundred thousand accompanied him to his resting place on Har HaMenuchot. Among his sons are Rav Shmuel Auerbach, who headed Yeshivat Maalot HaTorah, and Rav Ezriel Auerbach; his son-in-law was Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg of the Beit Din HaGadol. The Yerushalayim neighborhood Ramat Shlomo carries his name, as do Yeshivat Chochmat Shlomo in Bnei Brak, the Ateret Shlomo network, and streets called “Minchat Shlomo” after his sefer in cities across Eretz Yisrael.