Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch ZT”L

Joel Guberman told me the following:

1. He wore Rambam 7 with knots and not Rambam 13 with knots,
2. He was not a proponent of making it well known, and
3. He wore Techeiles on his Tallis Kattan and not Tallis Gadol for Yuhara reasons. For that matter he was also personally against wearing even white Tzitzis out as well.

~RH

From Baruch Sterman:

“From early on, Rav Nahum Rabinovitch was aware of our work but was quite skeptical and hesitant to accept the new tekhelet as authentic. Joel Guberman, who lived close to Rav Rabinovitch’s yeshiva, would engage him regularly in discussion about the topic, but he was met with an interesting challenge from the Rav. All the current researchers, he argued, used modern techniques and modern chemistry. How could one be sure that in ancient times, it was possible to dye with the murex in general and to get the snails to dye sky-blue in particular? Could we dye tekhelet using only means that were available to the dyers of old? To be sure, from a halakhic perspective, Rav Rabinovitch had no problem using modern chemicals and processes. Many ritual objects (including kelaf and tefillin) are manufactured today using updated techniques and ingredients that are very different from those employed by previous generations. However, Rav Rabinovitch maintained, it required demonstration that it was possible to obtain sky-blue tekhelet from the murex using methods that were available in ancient times. If that could be shown, modern techniques could be used thereafter without any problem.

Enter John Edmonds…

… Using the vague and often ambiguous 2,000-year-old descriptions of snail-dyeing provided by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, Edmonds eventually came to realize that the “natural” process for dyeing that was employed back then was based on fermentation. The key was to create conditions for bacteria of the Clostridia class, which are found on the snail meat, to thrive. Wood ash or stale urine would have been used in ancient times to create the basic environment with a pH between 8.5 and 9 that was necessary for fermentation to take place. Pliny mentions adding salt, which John did as well, realizing that this served to keep competing bacteria at bay. Edmonds placed this heady brew into a warm bath and heated it to a moderate temperature for a week or two to optimize the fermentation process. In fact, this recipe dovetails well with the somewhat laconic description of the dyeing process used by Jewish tekhelet dyers in Israel as reported by Rav Shmuel bar Yehuda to Abaye upon his arrival in Bavel: “How do you dye tekhelet?. . . We take the secretion from the hillazon and various herbs, put it in a pot, and heat it all up.” (Menahot 42b). John’s experiments proved successful, and it was the discovery of this unsavory process which ultimately led to his starring role on the BBC program.

The results of Edmonds’s experiments were immediately shared with Rav Rabinovitch, who remained skeptical. With all due respect to John Edmonds, he pointed out, the information obtained and data provided were hardly up to the scientific standards of peer-reviewed observation and reporting. Furthermore, good scientific experimentation must be replicable. Even if that meant pushing off a decision regarding tekhelet, he gently quipped, “We waited over a thousand years; we can wait a bit longer.” And so, undeterred, we continued our efforts and experimentations, eventually enlisting the help of Dr. Roy Hoffman (a former student of Rav Rabinovitch) of the Department of Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With our assistance, he carried out the process under laboratory conditions with precise measurements (leading to an article that can be found here). Once Rav Rabinovitch saw these results, he accepted the fact that the means and methods of murex-based tekhelet dyeing were indeed available to the ancients. It was only a short while later that Rav Rabinovitch himself began to wear tekhelet strings on his tzitzit. His innate humility, however, which was evident even as he pushed us harder, prevented him from advertising his position. With characteristic respect for personal autonomy with regard to halakhic decisions, he encouraged his students to come to their own conclusions based on their own careful investigation.

”

Bio from Wikipedia:

Nahum Eliezer Rabinovitch (Hebrew: נַחוּם אֱלִיעֶזֶר רָבִּינוֹבִיץּ׳‎; 30 April 1928 – 6 May 2020), born Norman Louis Rabinovitch,was a Canadian-Israeli Religious Zionist rabbi and posek. He headed the London School of Jewish Studies from 1971 to 1982, and the hesder yeshiva Birkat Moshe in Ma’ale Adumim from 1982 until his death.

Early life and education

Nahum Rabinovitch was born in Montreal, Quebec to Sarah (née Weiner) and Sam Rabinovitch. After completing an eight-year course of studies under Rabbi Pinchas Hirschsprung, Rabinovitch received semicha from Montreal’s Yeshivas Merkaz HaTorah in the city’s first rabbinical ordination ceremony.

After obtaining an honours degree in commerce from Sir George Williams College, he left for Baltimore to pursue a Master of Science degree in mathematics at Johns Hopkins University. While there, he studied at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, where he received a second ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman.

Career

Between 1955 and 1963, Rabinovitch served as spiritual leader of the Brith Sholom Beth Israel Congregation in Charleston, South Carolina. In this role, he helped establish the city’s first Jewish day school, of which he served as principal. He also held appointments as lecturer in mathematics at the College of Charleston and chaplain to the Sixth Naval District Headquarters.

In 1963, he was called to serve as a community rabbi in Toronto, and assumed the pulpit of the Clanton Park Synagogue in Downsview. He completed a Ph.D. in the philosophy and history of mathematics at the University of Toronto in 1971 under the supervision of Kenneth O. May. His doctoral thesis, Probability and Statistical Inference in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Literature, was published as a monograph in 1973.

Rabinovitch was appointed principal of Jews’ College in early 1970, and settled in London that spring. Notable among his students at the College was Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who has cited Rabinovitch as his primary role model. Ten years later, he accepted an offer to become rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, a hesder institution in Ma’ale Adumim.

In 2015, together with a group of prominent Israeli rabbis, Rabinovitch established Giyur Kehalacha, an independent beit din offering conversions outside of the Chief Rabbinate.

Philosophical and political views

Rabinovitch published Halakhic rulings on various subjects, including organ donation, surrogacy, birth control, army service, Shabbat, and kashrut. His philosophical approach, influenced by Maimonidean rationalism, emphasized the connection between philosophy and Halakha, between Torah and scientific studies, and between theoretical learning and practical applications.

Rabinovitch was an authority on the writings of Maimonides, about which he published numerous books and essays. He is perhaps best known for his fourteen-volume Yad Peshuta (lit. ‘Outstretched Hand’), an in-depth commentary on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. He also authored Melumdei Milḥamah (lit. ‘Learned in War’), a collection of responsa dealing with Halakhic issues facing religious members of the Israel Defense Forces.

Rabinovitch was a religious Zionist, a supporter of the settlement movement, and a vocal opponent of the Oslo Accords. He was, however, often more liberal in social and religious matters than many in the religious Zionist movement. In an interview, Rabinovitch said that he backed religious studies for women, and did not see a problem in Halakhic decisions taken by women. Nonetheless, he signed a letter in 2019 agreeing with the Chief Rabbinate‘s opposition to religious Jewish women serving in the IDF. He also ruled that it is incumbent on Israeli combat medics and doctors to treat and save the lives of Palestinian combatants, even if wounded in the course of attacking Israelis. Rabinovitch characterized Christianity and Islam positively as movements that spread monotheism, morality, and messianic hope. 

In 1995, Rabinovitch was among a group of rabbis accused of indirectly influencing Yigal Amir to assassinate Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, having branded Rabin a moser and likened his government to Nazis. The previous summer, he had also issued a ruling that Jewish soldiers should disobey any government orders to vacate West Bank army bases. 

Personal life

Rabinovitch had six children, including British journalist Dina Rabinovitch (born in 1963), who died in 2007 of breast cancer.