Memory Lane: Rav Shmuel Gerstenfeld, zt”l

Rav Gerstenfeld was a great ga’on who taught at RIETS. He lived in Boro Park during the 1920’s and 30’s. 

Rava Ruska 

The Galician town of Rava Ruska is located in eastern Poland, in the Lemberg area of what is today Ukraine. This is where Shmuel was born to his father, Reb Baruch, in the year 1872. In his youth, he learned under Rav Dov Berish Hakohe Rapaport, a legendary Ga’on and author of Derech Hamelech, who was a Rosh Yeshiva in Rava Ruska. Rav Dov Berish was as renowned for his ga’onus and hasmodoh in Torah as he was for his burning yiras Shomayim and overflowing chessed. The young Shmuel absorbed these influences and they would remain with him through his long life. 

In 1895, he married the former Brana Pechman, a native of Rav Ruska. 

Then, the couple took the rare step of sitting in Kollel within a yeshiva. They fulfilled the ma’amar Chazal to “exile to a makom Torah,” making the long, 600 km. journey to Klausenberg (Cluj-Napoca), Romania, where Rav Shmuel learned under Rav Moshe Shmuel Glasner, zt”l, who had inherited the Rabbonus of Klausenberg from his father Rav Avrohom. Rav Glasner, the oldest great-grandchild of the Chasam Sofer, served in this position from 1838-1923, when he made aliyah to Eretz Yisroel. 

Rav Shmuel received semicha from Rav Glasner in 1899, as well as from Rav Moshe Paneth, the Deezher Rov. 

America 

The Gerstenfelds arrived in America in 1916, and settled on Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side. Rav Shmuel was soon hired as the Rov of Shomrei Shabbos Nusach Ashkenaz, and became part of the faculty of the recently founded RIETS—located a bit further down Montgomery Street—where his title was “Professor of Rabbinical Law.” 

In the 1920’s, the Gerstenfeld’s moved to Boro Park, settling at 942 51st Street, where Rav Shmuel is also found during his founding of Degel Harabonim, along with Rav Yaakov Eskolsky and other prominent American Rabbonim, in 1928. They would remain there until the late 1930’s. 

Throughout his time in America, he contributed regularly and prolifically to the Torah journals Hapardes and Hamo’or on a wide range of halacha topics. In his essays, we are privy to his depth and breadth of Torah knowledge. In RIETS, he taught and mentored generations of future Rabbonim of America. By the time of his eightieth birthday, in 1952, he was still going strong. A tribute was given to him by RIETS—through which we are given a glimpse into his remarkable tenure there—in which they wrote: 

“The beloved Rebbi we honor this month is a classic example of ‘Ben Shmonim ligvurah.’ Though advanced in years, and physically weary after a long and active career, his mind is keen and alert, his smile ever-present and warm, his eyes still thinking and sparkling. No one in yeshiva can ever remember when Rabbi Gerstenfeld was less than vigorous and wholehearted in anything he did—in teaching, in counseling, in being a friend to his host of talmidim. He remains to this day tireless and enthusiastic in his work and thought for the cause of Torah. 

“Our Rebbe spent twelve years in England working in various capacities in the English ministry under Chief Rabbi [Rav Nosson] Adler. This was the time when he acquired his famous Oxford English accent, which stood him in such good stead in later years in yeshiva. 

“Humble, good-natured, sincere and friendly, R’ Gerstenfeld has been a beloved figure in yeshiva these many years. He has represented to three generations of Yeshiva students ‘Oxford English with a beard’ (no one else describes l’mafraya and mey’achshav as retroactive and prospective), and his ill-concealed disdain for ‘chazzonishe dreydlach’ have enlivened many a shabbos and simchas Torah services. Now Professor Emeritus, and resting from an active career, he still finds time for communal affairs and scholarly articles, and receives with love the respectful calls of former talmidim.” 

Rav Gerstenfeld was niftar in 1958 at the age of 85. His plethora brilliant writings remain available online, and his incredible contributions to American Jewry over forty years are a legacy to this great ga’on who resided in Boro Park of yesteryear.