The Ramailes Yeshiva was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Šnipiškės, Vilnius, Lithuania. It was established in the early nineteenth century, most likely in 1815.

Ramailes Yeshiva
ישיבת רמיילס
Location
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Šnipiškės, Vilnius

Coordinates54°42′07″N 25°16′33″E / 54.70194°N 25.27583°E / 54.70194; 25.27583
Information
Religious affiliation(s)Orthodox Judaism
Established1815/1827
FounderRabbi Avraham Abli Posveller
Closedc. 1940

Name

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The yeshiva's commonly used name, Ramailes, is based on the name of the building's donor who was known as Reb Mailes or Reb Maille. The official name may have been Yeshiva Tomchai Torah.[1]

History

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According to one source, the yeshiva was founded in 1815.[2] Another source states that Reb Mailes had willed a building and courtyard that he owned to be a yeshiva around that time.[3] Another source says the yeshiva was founded in 1827, and that Reb Mailes donated a building that he owned in 1831.[4] A fourth source, like the first, says that the yeshiva was established in 1815, and like the third, says that it only moved to the building in 1831.

The yeshiva's first rosh yeshiva (dean) was Rabbi Yoel Naftali Hertz who was later joined by Rabbi Eliezer Teitz, a student of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. In 1840, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was appointed rosh yeshiva. Salanter decided that his success in yeshiva was creating envy among other faculty members, and therefore left the yeshiva and began teaching in another beis midrash.[5] Other rosh yeshivas between Ramailes' founding and World War I included rabbis Mordechai Meltzer (Klecki), Dovid Klecki, Alexander Sender Epstein, Yitzchak Epstein, Meir Michel Rabinowitz (author of Meor Olam), Yaakov Peskin, Shmuel Peskin, and Shmuel Isser HaKohen. After World War I, Rabbi Moshe Menachem Kozlowski became rosh yeshiva.[citation needed]

Later Rabbi Meir Bassin, a member of the Vilna Rabbinate and the rabbi of the Vilna neighborhood of Shnipishok where the yeshiva was, became rosh yeshiva.[6] Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky of Vilna oversaw the yeshiva and in 1927 appointed Rabbi Shlomo Heiman to be rosh yeshiva.[7] About a year later Bassin died. In 1935, Heiman left to America where he became rosh yeshiva in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. In 1935 Rabbi Yisroel Levovitz was appointed rosh yeshiva.

Merging with Yeshivas HaK'tzavim

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Yeshivas HaK'tzavim, another yeshiva in Vilna, was led by Rabbi Eliyahu Gershon Halperin. At some point before World War II, it merged with the Ramailes Yeshiva, with Halperin joining the Ramailes faculty.[citation needed]

Reestablishment After World War II

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After World War II, after a few years as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim at 770 Eastern Parkway, Basin's son-in-law, Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman, who had taught at the yeshiva starting in 1935, opened Yeshiva Netzach Yisrael–Ramailes of Vilna. In 1970 he moved to Israel and reestablished his yeshiva there, under the same name.[8] After he died in 1991 his son-in-law, Rabbi Michel Bernicker, became rosh yeshiva.[9]

Notable alumni

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References

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  1. ^ Feldman, Rabbi Yaakov (March 2013). "A Biographical Sketch of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter Ohr Yisroel, Rabbi Salanter – Part 1". Torah.org. R' Salanter was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of Tomchai Torah in Vilna about 1842, and from there he moved to Zarechya where he established his own yeshiva and lectured for three years.
  2. ^ Fendel, Rabbi Zechariah (2003). Charting the Mesorah: Later Acharonim, Vol. IV. Brooklyn, NY: Hashkafah Publications. p. 36.
  3. ^ Page, Dovid (January 2017). Rav Gustman. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4226-1859-2.
  4. ^ Berel Wein (October 1990). "The Mussar Movement - Ethical Rebirth". Triumph of Survival. Brooklyn, NY: Shaar Press. p. 190. ISBN 1-4226-1514-6.
  5. ^ Geldwerth, Lipa (March 1984). "He Looked Into the Torah and Fashioned Man An Examination of the Life and Accomplishments of Reh Yisroel Salanter-A Century After His Passing" (PDF). The Jewish Observer. XVII (6). Agudath Israel of America: 11. Yet when invited to give shiurim in Rameillas Yeshiva in Vilna in 1840, he accepted, replacing Rabbi Eliezer Teitz, famed disciple of Rabbi Akiva Eiger....Reb Yisroel took the people of Vilna by storm-especially through his brilliant lectures.... But Reb Yisroel feared that his success was creating envy among fellow faculty members; so he left Rameillas Yeshiva to lecture in another beis midrash.
  6. ^ Page, Dovid (January 2017). Rav Gustman. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4226-1859-2.
  7. ^ Fendel, Rabbi Zechariah (2003). Charting the Mesorah: Later Acharonim, Vol. IV. Brooklyn, NY: Hashkafah Publications. p. 36.
  8. ^ Page, Dovid (January 2017). Rav Gustman. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4226-1859-2.
  9. ^ "Hespedim - Video". kolhalashon.com. Retrieved 26 February 2021. Hespedim for Rosh Yeshivas Netzach Yisroel, Harav Michel Bernicker zt"l (3 Shiurim)
  10. ^ Brudny, Rebbetzin Rochel (December 15, 2019). "Rebbetzin Brudny Remembers...". Mirrer Yeshiva Annual Dinner Journal. After learning for a few months in a Novardoker yeshiva, he went to Ramailles in Vilna under the jurisdiction of Harav Chaim Ozer Grodzenski.
  11. ^ Brudny, Rebbetzin Rochel (December 15, 2019). "Rebbetzin Brudny Remembers...". Mirrer Yeshiva Annual Dinner Journal. As he was leaving Ramailles, Harav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz zt"l arrived to learn there.
  12. ^ Eliach, Rabbi Dov (2016). "You Kept Me from Death; You Rescued Me from the Pit". Tales of Devotion. p. 348. ISBN 978-1680250428.