Azriel Rabinowitz

Azriel Rabinowitz (1905-1941) was a Rosh Yeshiva at the Telz Yeshiva in Lithuania and one of the youngest pre-Holocaust Rosh Yeshivas .¹ Rabbi Rabinowitz was born in Telz in 1905, the son of Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz (Reb Chaim Telzer) one of the Roshei Yeshiva in Telz. Rabbi Azriel was a brilliant young man and by the age of twenty he had mastered the entire Talmud in depth. Upon the death of his father in 1931, Rabbi Azriel was appointed to the faculty of the Telz Yeshiva at the young age of twenty six. His ability to go through a volume, absorb its contents in depth and remember everything, in a matter of several hours, distinguished him from his colleagues. His students relate how on occasion, Rabbi Rabinowitz would leave the Yeshiva thinking over a particular Talmudic concept so deeply engrossed, that he was unaware that he had walked all the way out of the town's boundaries. Indeed, despite his youth he was one of the greatest Torah scholars of his generation. He behaved modestly, not wanting to bring any special attention to himself. His complete knowledge and understanding of the requirements of mitzvot , would never impel him to render Halachic decisions for others, because he did not want to assume such a great responsibility. Rabbi Rabinowitz organized lectures in his own home to assist students who were finding the transition from the Mechina (preparatory school), to the Yeshiva proper, a difficult one. He also arranged lectures at his home on the subjects found in the second half of the Talmudic Tractate being studied in the Yeshiva , which was not lectured on by the faculty. Rabbi Rabinowitz was loved, admired and respected by his students for his outstanding qualities and his brilliant scholarship and acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in the Yeshiva world. On Tuesday July 15 (20 Tammuz) 1941, Nazi forces and local Lithuanian sympathizers massacred the male population of Telz, including Rabbi Azriel Rabinowitz, his family and the faculty of the Telz Yeshiva . Unfortunately, almost all of Rabbi Rabinowitz's writings were lost in the Holocaust. A few lectures recorded by students have been published in Talmudic journals.²