Yechiel Michel Epstein


Yechiel Michel ha-Levi Epstein
, often called "the Aruch haShulchan", was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania. His surname is often preceded by ha-Levi, as he descended from a family of Levites.

Biography

Yechiel Michel Epstein was born into a family of wealthy army contractors for the Czarist Russian army in Babruysk, Russian Empire. His wife was the sister of Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, who would become the rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva.
Epstein studied Torah locally, and was encouraged to do so by the town's rabbi and his parents. After his marriage he received semicha and accepted his first rabbinical position.
Epstein became the rabbi of Novozybkov, a town with a large number of Hasidic Jews, mainly adherents of Chabad Lubavitch.
Nine years after accepting his position in Novozybkov, in 1863, Epstein was appointed as the rabbi of Navahrudak, where he would serve for 34 years, until his death. Here, he was recognised as a posek, and he was to compose most of his writings in Navahrudak.
Epstein was involved in many charitable endeavors. He was particularly close to Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, and wrote extensively on the obligation of all Jews to support the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis charity that Rabbi Salant founded in Israel in 1860.
Epstein died on 22 Adar II 5668, and is buried in Navahrudak. His son, Rabbi Baruch Epstein, was a bookkeeper by profession but produced a number of scholarly and popular works, most notably the Torah Temimah.

Works