הרב אברהם בן שמעון שליט"א
Rabbi Avraham Benshimon
Rosh Kollel LeDayanus · Montreal
For more than fifty years he has taught in Montreal — in the mesivta, in the seminary, and at the head of a kollel that trains rabbinical judges. Alongside all of it, and without a research staff, he has been making one of the most difficult bodies of Torah writing of the last century readable.
The work
The Rogatchover Gaon, restored to full sentences
Rabbi Yosef Rosen zt"l (1858–1936), the Rogatchover Gaon, was held to be a genius of the first order. His commentary on the Rambam, Tzofnas Paneach, compresses whole arguments into a few words and cites its sources without saying what is being cited, or why. For generations the work has been admired far more often than it has been understood.
Rabbi Benshimon's series makes it legible. Working from the Rogatchover's own handwritten manuscripts, he identifies the source behind each compressed reference, traces the same idea through the Rogatchover's other writings and responsa, and weaves the explanation into the text itself — so that a student can follow an argument from beginning to end. It is not decoding so much as restoring a shorthand to full sentences.
The volumes follow the Rambam's own order, and are published in Jerusalem by Mosad HaRav Kook and Machon Yerushalayim. The work continues.
“I know some who have a team of people, a whole kollel of avreichim, to put out such a sefer.”
On being presented with the third volume in May 2012 — he already owned the first two. Told that Rabbi Benshimon works alone, he did not hide his surprise, and gave toward the printing of the fourth. Reported here.
The Sefarim
Volumes on the Rogatchover Gaon's commentary to the Rambam, published in Jerusalem. The series continues.
Shiurim
Recorded classes — the Or HaChaim on the parsha, a halacha series on Amira L'Akum, and sugyos from the kollel.
About the Rav
From Jaffa to Kiryat Gat, to the Rebbe at 770, and — since 1974 — to Montreal.