After the death of Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, the great editor-in-chief of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, changes were made in the composition of the editorial board.
Rabbi Yona Merzbach, who had been a member of the editorial board since the founding of the encyclopedia in the 1940s, and Rabbi Abraham Farbstein, who had joined the staff of the encyclopedia in 1956 and had become a member of the editorial board in the early 1970s were named editors-in-chief.
From the day he joined the encyclopedia, Rabbi Farbstein has occupied a unique place there.
He is the Mevakker, the critic par excellence.
It isn’t his job to go over articles for omissions and inaccuracies. The articles pass through several hands before they are handed to Rabbi Farbstein and by the time they reach him, they have already been corrected.
His is quite another task.
“The encyclopedia does not quote the early or later authorities verbatim. It gives a digest of their views. However, writers may differ in their way of presenting the digests, depending on how each of them understands the writings of the particular Rishon or Acharon: whether he grasped the main points or attached major importance to views which are only secondary.
“Let me illustrate this with an example from the world of art,” Rabbi Farbstein says. “Two people look at a picture. Each of them is impressed by a different aspect, depending on the esthetic sense and the individual taste of the viewer.
“In art impressions count and it is usual that every one describes the picture as he sees it. However in our case there is only one correct way of setting forth the view of a rabbinic authority.”
It has been Rabbi Farbstein’s task at the encyclopedia to check the digests prepared by his associates, whether they do indeed reflect the rabbis’ points of view correctly and in full. In order to be able to do this Rabbi Farbstein must study in depth the quoted rabbinic literatures and as the encyclopedia’s articles deal with a large variety of topics, he has to immerse himself into the study of Sugyot throughout the Talmud.
When Rabbi Farbstein joined the encyclopedia, the eighth volume was in the process of being compiled and since then all digests have been set forth in a manner approved by him.
One of the great virtues of the encyclopedia is Daikanuth, exactitude, and Rabbi Farbstein has contributed greatly towards this.
When I spoke to Rabbi Farbstein about his work, I was reminded of what Rabbi Yehoshu Hutner, the director general of the encyclopedia, had written me about him. ”The late Rabbi Zevin esteemed Rabbi Farbstein very highly. He used to say that every critical remark made by Rabbi Farbstein carried weight and was deserving of thorough study.”
Rabbi Farbstein was born in Poland and came to Palestine as a child. He was very young- before his Bar Mitzvah- when he entered the Hebron Yeshiva. He was a student of the late Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein and Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna. Before long the boy was one of the outstanding students. In 1936 Rabbi Eliezer Finkel, the Rosh Yeshiva of Mir visited Eretz Yisrael. He was greatly impressed with young Farbstein and invited him to come to Mir, paying his fare to Poland.
In Poland Rabbi Farbstein was very close to the late Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski and to Rabbi Aaron Kotler. One of the fondest memories of his stay is the Shabbath he spent with Rabbi Chaim Ozer at the latter’s summer place near Vilna.
Rabbi Farbstein studied in Mir for about two and a half years, returning to Jerusalem early in 1939.
During World War II he married the daughter of Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna. Subsequently he studied for one year at the Kollel of Rabbi Ze’ev Soloveitchik.
The Rav of Brisk did not accept in his Kollel students of the Yeshivot of Eretz Yisrael, but I was an exception,“ Rabbi Farbstein relates. “After all I studied for a period in Mir.”
Rabbi Farbstein returned later to the Yeshiva of Hebron, where he eventually became Rosh Yeshiva, a position he still occupies along with his post at the encyclopedia.
He was recently in the U.S. on a private visit.
His is a warm personality and he is a pleasant conversationalist. He lives in the world of the Talmud, but his interests transcend that sphere. He is not terrified by life in New York. He has been here before. He likes to see new cities, to meet new people. All in all he is somewhat different from the prototype we use to associate with a Rosh Yeshiva.
We talked about the Talmudic Encyclopedia.
“The encyclopedia excels by its completeness as well as by its exactitude, “ Rabbi Farbstein said. “Volume 15 contains articles on all kinds of Chazakot. Books have been written about Chazakot, but the articles in the encyclopedia are the most comprehensive.
“The 16th volume will appear shortly,“ Rabbi Farbstein continued. “It will contain extensive and important articles. To mention only one. Chanukah. In this article, every one from the Ba’al Bos who studies Torah up to a Gaon will find matters of interest.”
Rabbi Farbstein is proud that he is linked to Chasidim as well as Mithnagdim. His eldest son married a granddaughter of Rabbi Abraham Mordechai Alter, the late Rebbe of Gur. His second son is the husband of a granddaughter of Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, the Rav of Matersdorf. The third son married into a family of the old Yishuv and the youngest is a son-in-law of Rabbi Moshe Koshelevski, the rabbi of Be’er Sheva. Rabbi Farbstein’s daughter is married to Rabbi Raphael Shmuelewitz, the son of the late Rosh Yeshiva of Mir.
Jewish Press, May 4, 1979