Gershon Edelstein

Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein (Hebrew: ירחמיאל גרשון אדלשטיין; 18 April 1923 – 30 May 2023) was a Soviet-born Israeli Haredi rabbi who was rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, president of the Vaad Hayeshivos, and the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party in Israel. He was widely considered to be a Gadol Hador by the Litvish community.

After the death of Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman in late 2017, Rabbi Edelstein, together with Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, led the Degel HaTorah movement, representing most of the Litvak-Haredi community. From March 2022, following the death of Rabbi Kanievsky, Rabbi Edelstein assumed sole leadership of the Litvak public.

Edelstein was born in the town of Shumyachi (Shumyatch) near Smolensk, in the Soviet Union, to Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Edelstein, the city's rabbi and son of Rabbi Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein, author of Ben Aryeh on the Talmud, and to Miriam, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Movshovitz, rabbi of Melastovka.^{[citation needed]}

His mother obtained falsified birth certificates with incorrect dates for her sons, marking them as three years younger than their actual ages so they would not be enrolled in state-supervised schools under the Yevsektsiya (the Yiddish-language branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). He studied Torah under Rabbi Zalman Leib Estolin, a Chabadnik, in exchange for his father Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda tutoring Estolin in Gemara and Rishonim. After his mother fell ill with typhus, he and his younger brother, Rabbi Yaakov Edelstein, were sent to their aunt, Rebbetzin Rivka Tzivia Paz, in Klimovich, where they were raised by another Chabad rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Axelrod, who later sent them to study Torah secretly under Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Shneor, also a Chabad follower and disciple of their father. There, they received news of their mother's death.

In the month of Nisan 1934, their father secured a permit to emigrate to the Land of Israel, assisted by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and requested his sons return to Shumyachi. During this period, their grandmother Rebbetzin Raizel managed the household and raised the brothers, allowing their father to focus on Torah study. In the month of Iyar 1934, the family traveled on the ship "Novo Russia" from Odessa to the Land of Israel, arriving on Lag B'Omer. The family traveled to Jerusalem, where they visited Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rabbi Kook, who had studied together with their grandfather, Rabbi Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein, at the Volozhin Yeshiva.

In Elul 5694 (1934), after several months of moving between relatives, their father settled the family in Ramat HaSharon. Since there was no religious school in Ramat HaSharon, their father taught the boys at home, using crates of oranges as desks due to a lack of furniture. They studied Gemara with Rosh and Rif, and for some tractates, also the Tur and Beit Yosef. On Shabbat, they studied Rambam on topics related to the tractate. The brothers also learned grammar, arithmetic, and English, which was the official language at the time, with a special tutor brought to their home.

In 1935 (5695), their father was appointed as the local rabbi. Towards Elul 5702, the sons were sent to Lomza Yeshiva following Gershon's encouragement. They walked from their home to the yeshiva in Petach Tikvah on the first of Elul, unaware that the term had begun the previous day. The mashgiach, Rabbi Avraham Abba Grossbard, said he had no room left for them. Shlomo Zalman Moses, the yeshiva's secretary (father of Menachem Eliezer Moses), met them and invited them to sleep at his home until beds were found for them at the yeshiva in early Cheshvan. Following their father's instruction, they joined the study group of Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky.

A year later, their father remarried to Rachel, and he asked his sons to return, explaining that with the rebbetzin now taking on household responsibilities, they could focus on their studies without interruption. The brothers resumed their study routine with their father. In the winter of 5704 (1943–1944), when the Ponevezh Yeshiva was established, Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky, who had been appointed as a head of the yeshiva, asked their father to have them join the founding group of the yeshiva. They were among the first six students at the yeshiva, which was then located in the Ligman Synagogue in Bnei Brak, with the students staying in rented rooms around the city. The two younger brothers stayed in the home of Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, who rented out his only bedroom to the yeshiva.^{[citation needed]}