הרב יחזקאל לוינשטיין

Rav Yechezkel Levenstein (5645/1885–18 Adar 5734/1974), known throughout the yeshiva world as Reb Chatzkel, was among the great baalei mussar of the last century — mashgiach ruchani of Mir, of Lomza in Petach Tikvah, and of Ponevezh. He was born in Warsaw and lost his mother, Zlota, at the age of five; by bar mitzvah he was working for his bread. It is told that after a full week of work his wages were stolen in the Warsaw bathhouse on erev Shabbat, and the loss opened his eyes: he resolved to give his days to Torah and mussar, to acquire what no man can take from him. He learned in the yeshiva of Lomza, then in Radin under the Chafetz Chaim, and in the Talmud Torah of Kelm; among his rebbeim were Rav Yerucham Levovitz and Rav Nachum Zev Ziv, son of the Alter of Kelm.

He served as mashgiach in Kletzk and in Mir, and from 5695/1935 in Eretz Yisrael as mashgiach of Yeshivat Lomza in Petach Tikvah — where a talmid recalled the mashgiach who sent his bachurim to rest in the summer heat while he himself remained in the beit midrash from morning until night, working on himself. On the passing of his rebbi Rav Yerucham he returned to Poland to fill his place in Mir. With the outbreak of the war he fled with the yeshiva to Vilna and Keidan, and from there across Russia to Kobe and Shanghai, where through the war years he came to stand as the yeshiva’s leader. When word of the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry reached Shanghai in Adar 5703/1943, he was maspid the kedoshim; those shmuessen were later printed in MiMizrach Shemesh.

After the war he headed the talmidim of Mir in America, and at the urging of Rav Shach — who knew him from their years together in Kletzk — was oleh in 5709/1949, continuing as mashgiach in Mir of Yerushalayim; in 5714/1954 he moved to Ponevezh in Bnei Brak. His path in mussar set yirat Shamayim and simple, unphilosophical emunah at the center of avodah. Rav Shach said in his hesped that the mashgiach was “the greatest oved Hashem I have ever seen.” His talks and letters were gathered by his son-in-law Rav Reuven Yehoshua Ginzburg in the volumes of Or Yechezkel; among his talmidim were Rav Shlomo Wolbe, Rav Gedalia Eisemann, Rav Dan Segal, and Rav Shmuel Birnbaum, rosh yeshiva of Mir in America. He was niftar in his home on the hill of the Ponevezh yeshiva on 18 Adar 5734/1974.