Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz - Torah Disseminator

Torah Disseminator

After his wedding, Rabbi Lefkowitz began learning in Kollel Toras Eretz Yisrael in Petah Tikva. He also began giving regular shiurim (Torah lectures) in his father-in-law's yeshiva, Tiferes Tzion, a position he held until his final days more than 70 years later. He began giving a nightly shiur to baalebatim (working men) in the Chazon Ish's home in 1953; he also continued this shiur until his final days.

In Cheshvan 1954 the Ponovezher Rav, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, opened a yeshiva ketanah in the Ponovezh yeshiva and invited Rabbi Lefkowitz to serve as rosh yeshiva together with Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman. Rabbi Lefkowitz raised thousands of students, and even taught the grandchildren of his original students. In the first and second years of the yeshiva ketana, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky were his students. He also taught Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, today rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva HaRashbi and a son-in-law of Rabbi Elazar Shach. Rabbi Lefkowitz gave a regular daily shiur at the yeshiva ketana until his health declined in summer 2009; he continued to give shiurim and shmuessen (mussar talks) there until his final days.

In the late 1990s, Rabbi Lefkowitz started a kollel for the study of Tohorot, together with an evening kollel for in-depth study of this topic. Branches of the kollel were opened in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Haifa, Ofakim, Kiryat Sefer, Petah Tikva, and other locations.