Yechiel Michel Epstein

Yechiel Michel Epstein (24 January 1829 – 24 February 1908), often called "the Aruch ha-Shulchan" (after his main work, Aruch HaShulchan), was a Rabbi and posek (authority in Jewish law) in Lithuania. His surname is often preceded by ha-Levi, as he descended from a family of Levites.

Yechiel Michel Epstein was born into a family of wealthy army contractors for the Czarist Russian army in Babruysk, Russian Empire (presently in Belarus). His wife was the sister of Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv), who would become the rosh yeshiva (head) of the Volozhin Yeshiva. (Berlin was later to marry a daughter of Epstein, after being widowed of his first wife.)

Epstein studied Torah locally, and was encouraged to do so by the town's rabbi and his parents (the concept of an out-of-town yeshiva was only slowly gaining ascendancy). After his marriage he received semicha (rabbinic ordination) and accepted his first position.

Epstein became the rabbi of Novozybkov (east of Gomel, now Bryansk region), a town with a large number of Hasidic Jews, mainly adherents of Chabad Lubavitch.

Nine years after accepting his position in Novozybkov, in 1863, Epstein was appointed as the rabbi of Navahrudak, where he would serve for 34 years, until his death. Here, he was recognised as a posek (decisor of Jewish law), and he was to compose most of his writings in Navahrudak.

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