ר׳ מיכאל רוזנצוויג

ר׳ מיכאל רוזנצוויג (born 22 December 1956) is a Canadian-born American rosh yeshiva, Talmudist and historian of medieval halakhah. Raised in the scholarly and communal environment of his father ר׳ ברל רוזנצוויג, he studied in Queens under ר׳ ירוחם בוברובסקי, at Yeshivat Har Etzion under ר׳ אהרן ליכטנשטיין, and at Yeshiva University for six years under ר׳ יוסף דוב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק. He graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva College in 1980, received semikhah from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and continued in its Gruss Kollel Elyon. At the Bernard Revel Graduate School he earned an M.A. and a 1996 Ph.D. in medieval Jewish history under Professor ר׳ חיים סולובייצ׳יק; his dissertation studied debt collection in absentia as halakhah responded to a mobile commercial society. Appointed a RIETS rosh yeshiva in 1985, he now holds the Nathan and Perel Schupf Chair in Talmud. Since 1997 he has led the Beren Institute for Advanced Talmudic Studies, training senior scholars and future communal rabbis. His method expands conceptual Brisker analysis through systematic comparison of Rishonim, attention to legal structure and historical development, and investigation of the religious values expressed by halakhic institutions. His publications address halakhic pluralism, creativity in divine service, Talmudic methodology and repentance; his book מימיני מיכאל integrates legal analysis and Jewish thought around Yom Kippur and teshuvah. He remains an active RIETS teacher and prolific lecturer.