Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach (often referred to simply as Rav Shach or Maran) was one of the most influential Torah scholars, educators, and political leaders in modern Jewish history. From the early 1970s until his passing at over 100 years old, he was recognized as the Gadol Ha-Dor (the supreme rabbinic authority of the generation) for the Lithuanian (non-Hasidic) Ashkenazi Haredi community, fundamentally reshaping the religious and political landscape of Israel.

Early Life and Survival

Born in Vabalninkas, Lithuania, Rav Shach was recognized as a child prodigy (illui). He left home at a young age to immerse himself in the intense intellectual world of the great European yeshivas, including Ponevezh and Slabodka.

• The War Years: He endured immense poverty and upheaval during World War I and the interwar period.By the outbreak of World War II, through extreme hardship and personal tragedy—including the loss of his mother and eldest daughter—he managed to escape Nazi-occupied Europe.

  
  

• Arrival in Israel: In 1940, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine with the help of his uncle-in-law, the great Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer.

  
  

The Master of Ponevezh

Rav Shach's primary legacy is tied to the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, where he served as co-dean for over fifty years.

• He transformed Ponevezh into the crown jewel of the post-Holocaust yeshiva world.

• He championed the concept of a "society of learners," actively engineering a culture where young men dedicated themselves entirely to full-time Torah study rather than entering the workforce or pursuing secular education.

  
  

• His magnum opus, Avi Ezri, is a multi-volume commentary on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, celebrated for its brilliant, traditional Lithuanian style of analytical logic.

  
  

The "Kingmaker" of Israeli Politics

Though deeply non-Zionist and critical of secular state institutions, Rav Shach realized that the survival and growth of the ultra-Orthodox world depended on leveraging political power. He became an unexpected and formidable political strategist.

1. Fracturing and Rebuilding Parties

Disillusioned by the Hasidic dominance over the traditional Haredi party (Agudat Yisrael), Rav Shach orchestrated historic shifts:

• The Rise of Shas (1984): Recognizing the marginalization of Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews, he partnered with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to help launch the Shas party, providing Ashkenazi rabbinic backing to mobilize Sephardic voters.

  
  

• Degel HaTorah (1988): He officially broke away from Agudat Yisrael to form Degel HaTorah ("The Banner of the Torah") to explicitly represent the Lithuanian-Ashkenazi community.

  
  

2. The "Rabbits" Speech and Political Shift

In 1990, during a political crisis known as "the stinking maneuver," Rav Shach delivered a televised address to tens of thousands of people at the Yad Eliyahu stadium. He famously castigated secular kibbutzniks, asking rhetorically if they were even Jewish if they raised pigs and did not know what Yom Kippur was. This "Rabbits Speech" effectively blocked the left-wing Labor party from forming a government, aligning the Haredi political bloc firmly with the right-wing Likud party for decades to come.

Ideology and Fierce Battles

Rav Shach was a complex ideologue—uncompromisingly conservative on religious matters, yet pragmatically cautious on national defense.

Death and Legacy

Rav Shach passed away on November 2, 2001, at an estimated age of 102 (some accounts suggest older).His funeral in Bnei Brak drew an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 mourners, bringing the city to a standstill.

He left behind a completely rebuilt and self-sustaining Haredi infrastructure. The institutions he created—including the Yated Ne'eman newspaper, independent school networks, and the United Torah Judaism political alliance—continue to dictate the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of orthodox Jews and heavily influence Israeli coalition governments today.