Abba Berman

Abba Berman was born on Tu BiShvat 5679 (1919) in Łódź, Poland to Shaul Yosef Berman, rosh yeshiva of Toras Chesed in Lodz[1] and a student of the Chofetz Chayim.[2] As a young child, Berman's greatness was recognized by the Chofetz Chaim.[3] The Berman family were descendants of Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz.

Following his Bar Mitzvah, Berman learned in Yeshivas Mir where he became close to the mashgiach ruchani, Yerucham Levovitz.[4] Upon his arrival, the other students gave Berman the nickname "Abba Einstein" in recognition of his brilliance. The name stuck so well that Chaim Shmuelevitz, acknowledging this comparison, remarked "A bochur (young man) has arrived with such an interesting name... Einstein..." Aryeh Finkel quoted Shmuelevitz as saying "They have Einstein, but we have Abba Lodzer!"[1] Berman particularly impressed Eliezer Yehuda Finkel with his novellae on Kodashim.[5] He was a study partner of Nachum Partzovitz.[5]

Along with most of the student body of the Yeshivas Mir, Berman fled to Shanghai during World War II. Between sedorim (study sessions) in Shanghai he managed to obtain the only copy of Chaim Soloveitchik's chiddushim on the Rambam that was in the yeshiva. Cutting down on the time he spent at meals, he toiled over Reb Chaim instead until he'd finished the entire sefer (book). Thereafter he saw himself as a student of Soloveitchik and modeled the way he learned upon his approach.

Berman eventually migrated to the United States where he became one of the founding members of the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where he married Itka Greenberg.[2] Berman established Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud on Beach 17th Street in Far Rockaway, Queens.[6]

After several years, Berman emigrated to Israel and re-established Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud in Bnai Brak. The yeshiva relocated to Jerusalem, then finally to the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Sefer in the West Bank. In his final years he served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Knesses Yitzchok of Chadera-Kiryat Sefer.[1]

He died on May 12, 2005 corresponding to the 3rd of Iyar, 5765. His Talmudic lectures were published posthumously under the title "Iyun HaTalmud" (עיון התלמוד).

Berman was survived by his wife and six daughters. His wife died at the end of Cheshvan, 5770. One of his daughters, Mrs. Ornstein, runs the Hadar Seminary for Women in Jerusalem, where two of Berman's other daughters also teach. One of those was married to Mosheh Twersky, the elder son of Yitzhak Twersky of Boston, and a grandson of Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who taught at Yeshivas Toras Moshe and was murdered in the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack.[7]

Berman was recognized as a gadol (prominent rabbi) despite never having accepted a significant leadership post.. He is supposed to have coined the idiom, "“From your viewpoint, you’re right. It’s your viewpoint that’s wrong.”

• Chaim Malinowitz (1952 – 2019), rabbi in Ramat Beit Shemesh and editor of the Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud[8]
• Yerucham Olshin, rosh yeshiva in Beth Medrash Govoha
• Yisroel Eliyahu Weintraub, kabbalist
• Refoel Wolpin, rabbi in Mercaz Hatorah[5]

• Shiurei Iyun HaTalmud, on Seder Kodshim
• Shiurei Iyun HaTalmud, on Seder Nashim

• Shiurim of Rabbi Abba Berman
• Extended Obituary of Rabbi Abba Berman