Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim (also known as the Rabbinical Seminary of America) is an Orthodox yeshiva in the United States, based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York. It is primarily an American, Lithuanian-style Talmudic yeshiva. The Yeshiva is legally titled Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA), however it is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim, as that was the sobriquet of its namesake, Yisroel Meir Kagan. The school has affiliate branches in Israel and North America.

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Jerusalem History

The yeshiva was established in 1933 by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz, a great-nephew of the Chofetz Chaim. Rabbi Leibowitz was a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel and he also studied under Rabbi Naftoli Trop and the Chafetz Chaim in the Raduń Yeshiva. Both of these yeshivas were in Lithuania. However, for a time Radin was governed by Poland.

The new yeshiva was named for his great uncle Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who had died that year. Although it’s officially named Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen, the yeshiva is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim^[1] (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים‎), as its namesake, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, was known as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book with the same title. (Chofetz Chaim means “Seeker/Desirer [of] Life” in Hebrew. The book concentrates on the Jewish religious laws of proper speech.)

The yeshiva’s first building was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In December 1955 it relocated to Forest Hills, Queens, and at the start of the 2003 academic year, to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.^[2]

After its founder’s death in December 1941, the yeshiva was headed and developed by his son, Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz. Today, it is led by two of Rabbi Liebowitz’s close disciples, Rabbi Dovid Harris^[3] and Rabbi Akiva Grunblatt.

RSA houses a boys’ yeshiva high school, an undergraduate yeshiva, and a rabbinical school that grants Semicha (ordination). Rabbinical students at the yeshiva often spend a decade or more there, studying a traditional yeshiva curriculum focusing on Talmud, mussar (“ethics”), and halakha (“Jewish law”).

Who Was the Chofetz Chaim?

By Menachem Posner

The Chofetz Chaim at prayer towards the end of his life. (Photo by Wikimedia)

Known popularly as the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (1839-1933) was a Talmudist, rabbi and decisor of Jewish law based in the town of Radin (today Radun’, Belarus).

During his long and fruitful rabbinic career (he continued to lead until his passing), he wrote many important works, most notably the Mishnah Berurah—a companion to Orech Chaim, the section of Jewish law that deals with everyday life. Written in clear Hebrew, it is studied widely and considered an important source of practical halachah (Jewish law).

Ever the practical leader, he wrote several halachic guides intended for Jews in distressed or compromised situations. Machaneh Yisrael was directed toward Jews enlisted in the (Polish) army, under circumstances that precluded living a fully Jewish life, and Nidchei Yisrael was intended for Jewish peddlers and others living far from established Jewish communities.

He wrote extensively about the mandate to eagerly await the arrival of Moshiach. In fact, in anticipation of the Final Redemption, he went so far as to publish works and teach his students the laws that will be relevant only after the Holy Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem.

He is most closely associated, however, with the volume Chofetz Chaim (“Desires Life”), which documents the laws and parameters of the Jewish prohibition against lashon hara, speaking ill of others.

Stories abound about the Chofetz Chaim’s legendary humility, sensitivity, and genuine love for every individual.

As a leader of Judaism during some of Europe’s most tumultuous times, he stood at the helm of a community confronting the successive challenges of modernization, nationalism, and communism, steadily guiding his people along the path of Torah and Judaism.

Characteristics Of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Jerusalem

There are six primary characteristics of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim of Queens that distinguish it from other Yeshivos:

1. An emphasis upon unfolding the latent processes of reasoning within the steps of the Talmudic sugya (“section”) being studied. The methodology places emphasis on the notion that the initial assumptions of the Talmud must be highly rigorous, and that the movement between the initial thought process (known as the hava aminah) of the Talmudic sugya to the final thought process (known as the maskana) must be fully unfolded and understood.^[5]
2. An approach to ethical and Biblical texts and its commentaries that emphasizes a rigor that other yeshivas of this genre generally accord to Halakhic or Talmudic texts alone. The yeshiva promotes the idea that ideally a deduction from these texts should be muchrach meaning “logically and textually compelling.” This approach yields a convincing discourse on Torah that is “well-grounded”.
3. The study of Mussar (“ethics”), both by attending and reviewing semiweekly lectures (that are presented in the well-grounded method described above) and through daily individual study of Mussar texts, is strongly emphasized. Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz founded the Chofetz Chaim yeshiva in the footsteps of his rebbe, the Alter of Slabodka, and Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the Mussar movement. Through the study of mussar one may hope, over many years, to improve character traits by increasing self-awareness and self-control. Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz would continually remind his students that as important as it is to become a lamden (“analytical scholar”) and a great pedagogue, it is even more important to become a mentch (“a good human being”).
4. An emphasis on propagating the ideals and values of Judaism. Upon completion of a rigorous term of study, students are encouraged to seek employment in the field of Jewish education, often launching their own educational institutions themselves or with a partner. Hundreds (possibly thousands) of alumni have gone on to become religious instructors, synagogue rabbis, education and outreach coordinators, community leaders, and organizational officials.
5. The omnisignifigance and complete subservience to “Daas Torah” as defined in the introduction to the 6 – volume collection of Rabbi H. Lebowitz’s mussar lectures, “Chidushei Halev”, as well as numerous public ethical discourses. This is the concept that everything is included in the Torah and the way that the Torah logic (i.e. Talmudic reasoning) works is the way that God’s mind works; therefore one who has spent years dedicated to in depth Talmudic study has shaped his mind to think like the Torah/God and is thus able to apply the Torah’s logic to all manner of situations.
6. The dress code is unique in that they allow the students to wear colored shirts as opposed to white shirts which are mandatory in other Lithuanian Haredi Yeshivos. This is in line with the view of Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz who once joked that “A person can be a student of the Torah (בן תורה) even when wearing a colored shirt.”

Affiliates and branches by location

United States

• California:
  • Valley Torah High School, Los Angeles
  • Torah High Schools of San Diego, San Diego
  • Yeshivas Ner Aryeh
  • Chofetz Chaim of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
  • Yeshiva Ketana of Los Angeles
• Florida:
  • Yeshiva Toras Chaim Toras Emes, North Miami Beach- Rabbi Binyomin Luban, Rosh Yeshiva
  • JEC of South Florida, Boca Raton, Florida
  • Torah Academy of Boca Raton
  • Yeshiva Tiferes Torah of Boca Raton
  • Orlando Torah Academy, Orlando, Florida

• Illinois:
  • Torah Academy of Buffalo Grove (day school)
  • Suburban Alliance for Jewish Education (outreach organization)
  • Jewish Family Interactive Experience Hebrew School
• Kentucky
  • Montessori Torah Academy, Louisville, KY

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Queens

Mesivta Chofetz Chaim
Private, Jewish, All-Boys9-12FLUSHING, NY
Rating 3 out of 5 2 reviews
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Mesivta Chofetz Chaim is a private, all-boys, Jewish school located in FLUSHING, NY. It has 93 students in grades 9-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 10 to 1. After graduation, 50% of students from this school go on to attend a 4-year college.
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7601 147TH ST
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