Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky הרב יחזקאל אברמסקי
the commentator on the Tosefta; he sat in a Soviet prison and headed the London court for seventeen years
Out of a Belarusian town (born 5646) he passed through Telz, Mir, Slabodka and the Brisk of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik—and became a rabbi at seventeen. He served in Smalyany, Smalyavichy, Slutsk, and later Smolensk.
Prison. In 5689 the Soviet authorities arrested him—the pretext was a Hebrew journal, Yagdil Torah, that he had started. He was given five years' hard labour in Siberia. He began his commentary on the Tosefta there, on cigarette papers. In 5691 he was released: Germany intervened for him, and he was exchanged for six communists.
London. At the end of 5692 he came to London, and in 5694 became head of the London Beth Din, and remained so for seventeen years. Under him the London court became one whose word was heard far beyond England. In 5711 he retired and went to Jerusalem, where he taught at the Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
The Tosefta. Chazon Yechezkel is his life's work: a commentary on the Tosefta, a book little and reluctantly studied before him, because its text is hard and corrupt. Eleven volumes. In 5716 he received the first Israel Prize ever given for rabbinic literature.
He died in Jerusalem in 5736; more than forty thousand people walked behind his coffin.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Rabbi Y. Abramsky, Chazon Yechezkel — his commentary on the Tosefta—eleven volumes
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Abramsky, Yehezkel" — his dates, the arrest of 5689 and Siberia, the exchange of 5691, the London court 5694–5711, Jerusalem from 5711, the Israel Prize of 5716
Basis: documents and evidence.