Yeruchom Levovitz

Yeruchom Levovitz (; – 1936), was a mashgiach ruchani (dean of students) and baal (master of) mussar (Jewish Ethics) at the Mir Yeshiva in Belarus.

Early life R' Yeruchom Levovitz was born in 1875 (5635 in the Jewish calendar) in Lyuban, in Minsk Region, Belarus (near Slutsk) to Avraham and Chasya Levovitz. He received his education in the yeshivas of Slobodka and Kelm.

He was a disciple of rabbis Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and RSimcha Zissel Ziv of Kelm.

Mir Yeshiva Levoviz was the spiritual leader of the Mir Yeshiva in Belarus from 1910 until the outbreak of World War I and then again from 1924 until his death in 1936.

After World War II, much of orthodox Jewry in Europe was wiped out, along with their many yeshivas (Jewish schools of higher learning). One of the only yeshivas to survive as a whole body was the Mir Yeshiva, which escapex to Shanghai, China, and then on to America.

Disciples Some of his better known disciples include Simcha Zissel Halevi Levovitz, Chaim Shmulevitz, Dovid Povarsky, Aryeh Leib Malin, Abba Berman, Zelik Epstein, Shimon Schwab, Shlomo Wolbe, Binyomin Zeilberger, Nachum Partzovitz.

He died on the 18th of Sivan (June 7/8) in 1936 at the age of sixty-three. He is buried in the town of Mir, Belarus.

Works His shmuessen (discoursed on ethics and improving character) were published posthumously by his students - mainly by his son Rav Simcha Zissel, in Daas Chochma U’mussar, and Daas Torah. After Rav Simcha Zissel's passing, his son Rav Yisroel continued his father's work and published Sifsei Da'as and Da'as Zekanim on Avos, Shivivei Da'as on Mo'adim, and just this year Da'as Binah on the Haggadah.