הרב יחיאל מיכל הלוי אפשטיין

Rav Yechiel Michel HaLevi Epstein (20 Shevat 5589/1829–22 Adar II 5668/1908), called by all generations the Aruch HaShulchan after his great work, was rav of Novardok and among the foremost poskim of the last generations. Born in Bobruisk to Aharon Yitzchak Epstein, a building contractor, he first meant to trade like his father while fixing times for Torah, until Rav Eliyahu Goldberg of nearby Parichi, a talmid of Rav Chaim of Volozhin, persuaded him to give himself wholly to learning. He spent two years in Volozhin, where a lifelong bond began with the Netziv; he married the Netziv’s sister Michlah, and years later the Netziv, widowed, married Rav Epstein’s daughter Batya Miriam — among their children was Rav Meir Bar-Ilan. Back in Bobruisk he taught in the yeshiva and sat as dayan on the beit din of Rav Goldberg, from whom he received semichah, while the family’s parnassah came from his wife’s fabric store; in her hesped he said that for thirty years he did not even know where the store stood.

In 1864 he became rav of Novozybkov, a town of many chasidim of Chabad and Chernobyl; his son writes that soon after arriving he traveled to Lubavitch to the Tzemach Tzedek. There he wrote his first sefer, Or LaYesharim, on the Sefer HaYashar of Rabbeinu Tam. In 1874 he was appointed rav of Novardok, where he served thirty-four years, until his last day, and where he wrote most of his sefarim.

The Aruch HaShulchan spans all four chelkei Shulchan Aruch, walking each halachah from its sources through the shitot of the Rishonim to a clear psak, with the Acharonim weighed along the way; its companion, Aruch HaShulchan He’Atid, sets out the halachot that will return with the geulah — zeraim, kodashim, taharot — a span no codifier had taken up since the Rambam. He was known for his koach d’heteira, a readiness to rule leniently where the halachah bears it. He also wrote Meichal HaMayim on the Yerushalmi, Leil Shimurim on the Haggadah, and the derashot Kol Ben Levi.

He was called the greatest of the masmichim of his day: among those who received semichah from him were Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, and Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman of Ponevezh. His son Rav Baruch wrote the Torah Temimah. He was niftar on 22 Adar II 5668/1908 and rests in Novardok.