Rabbi Shach הרב שך
head of the Ponevezh yeshiva, leader of the Lithuanian Haredi world
Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach was born in a Lithuanian town in 5659, studied at Slabodka and Ponevezh, survived the war having lost most of his family, and reached the Land of Israel in the 1940s. For years he was almost unknown; recognition came late, when Rav Yosef Kahaneman placed him at the head of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak — a yeshiva built as a monument to the annihilated Lithuanian world.
His «Avi Ezri», a commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah, is a model of the analytic method of the Lithuanian yeshivas: not paraphrase but the exposure of underlying logic.
After the deaths of the Chazon Ish and Rav Kahaneman he became the acknowledged leader of Lithuanian Haredi Jewry. He held unbending positions, disputing with Chabad, with religious Zionism, and with any attempt to soften the boundary between the yeshiva world and general society.
Twice his decisions changed the country's politics. In 5744 he blessed the founding of Shas; in 5748, breaking with Agudat Yisrael, he backed the new Degel HaTorah party.