Aharon Lichtenstein

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Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein
Born	1933 France

Aharon Lichtenstein (born 1933) is a noted Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva.

Rabbi Lichtenstein was born in France, but grew up in the United States, studied in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin under Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner. He earned a BA and semicha ("rabbinic ordination") at Yeshiva University and a PhD in English Literature at Harvard University, where he studied under Douglas Bush.

After serving as Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University for several years, Rabbi Lichtenstein answered Rabbi Yehuda Amital's request in 1971 to join him at the helm of Yeshivat Har Etzion, located in Gush Etzion, Israel, and moved to Jerusalem. He still maintains a close connection to Yeshiva University as a Rosh Kollel for the Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, an affiliate of Yeshiva University and its rabbinical school, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. In 2006, he and his wife Tovah moved to Alon Shvut, where Yeshivat Har Etzion is located.

On January 4, 2006, Rabbi Yaaqov Medan and Rabbi Baruch Gigi were officially invested as co-roshei yeshiva alongside Rav Amital and Rav Lichtenstein, with an eye toward Rabbi Amital's intention to retire.[1]

He is committed to intensive and original Torah study and articulates a bold Jewish worldview that embraces modernity, reflecting the tradition of his teacher and father-in-law, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik in line with Centrist Orthodoxy.

He is a source of inspiration for a wide circle of Jewry, for both his educational attainments and his intellectual and spiritual leadership.

[edit] Works

By His Light: Character and Values in the Service of God, based on Lichtenstein's addresses and adapted by Reuven Ziegler
Leaves of Faith (vol. 1): The World of Jewish Learning
Leaves of Faith (vol. 2): The World of Jewish Living

Based on Rabbi Lichtenstein's Talmud classes at Yeshivat Har Etzion, his students' notes have been edited and published as Shiurei Harav Aharon Lichtenstein on Tohorot, Zevahim, the eighth chapter of Bava Metzia, the third chapter of Bava Batra, the Ramban's pamphlet on Dinah DiGarmi and the first chapter of Pesahim.