Mashgiach ruchani (or Mashgiach, (Hebrew: "Spiritual supervisor/guide") is a title that usually refers to a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students' lives. The most famous mashgiach ruchani was Nosson Zvi Finkel (1849-1927) founder of the Slabodka yeshiva. Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī;; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished, (in knowledge). In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי (Ribbi... Yeshiva or yeshivah (Hebrew: ישיבה pl. ... Nosson Zvi (Nota Hirsh) Finkel (1849-1927), was born in Lithuania and died in the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Slabodka yeshiva (Knesset Yisrael), was known colloquially as the mother of yeshivas (rabbinical seminaries). ...

The position of mashgiach ruchani arose with the establishement of the modern "Lithuanian-style" mussar-yeshivas. The Hebrew term mussar, while literally derived from a word meaning tradition, usually refers to Jewish ethics in general, or (and more commonly) refers to the Jewish ethics education movement that developed in the 19th century Orthodox Jewish European community, particularly in Lithuania. ...

The role of the mashgiach ruchani was strongest in the era prior to World War II, when often the mashgiach was responsible for maintaning yeshiva financially, recruiting and interviewing new students, hiring staff, something akin to an academic "dean". After the Holocaust, the influence and position of the mashgiach decreased, and the roles of the rosh yeshivas have outgrown those of the mashgiachs'. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... In an educational setting, a dean is a person with significant authority . ... Child survivors of the Holocaust before their liberation The Holocaust is the name applied to the systematic state-sponsored persecution and genocide of various ethnic, religious and political groups during World War II by Nazi Germany and collaborators. ... A Rosh yeshiva (Hebrew: ראש ישיבה) (plural in Hebrew: Roshei yeshiva, but also referred to in the English form as Rosh yeshivas) is a rabbi who is the academic head, or rosh (ראש), of a yeshiva (ישיבה), a college of higher Talmudic study. ...

The need for having a mashgiach within the modern yeshivas was tied in with the rise of the modern mussar movement (teaching of Jewish ethics), inspired by Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter (1810-1883), and was seen as necessary because yeshiva students faced greater pressures and problems from the world outside of their yeshiva studies. The Hebrew term mussar, while literally derived from a word meaning tradition, usually refers to Jewish ethics in general, or (and more commonly) refers to the Jewish ethics education movement that developed in the 19th century Orthodox Jewish European community, particularly in Lithuania. ... Rabbi Yisrael ben Zev Wolf Lipkin (1810-1883) was the father of the Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism. ...

Famous mashgiach ruchanis

(Alphabetically):

• Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler
• Nosson Zvi Finkel
• Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz

Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892-1953) was an influential Orthodox Jewish thinker of the 20th century. ... Nosson Zvi (Nota Hirsh) Finkel (1849-1927), was born in Lithuania and died in the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz was an early leader of American Orthodoxy and founder of key institutions of Torah Vodaath, a Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and Torah UMesorah, an outreach and educational organization. ...

See also

• Rosh yeshiva
• Yeshiva
• Mussar movement
• Kollel
• Beth midrash
• Haredi Judaism