Aaron Lopiansky (Hebrew: ÃÂÃÂèàÃÂÃÂäÃÂÃÂàáçÃÂ), born September 1953, also known as Rav Ahron, is an American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi, author, posek, and Rosh Yeshiva at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington â Tiferes Gedaliah. He has written more than 20 works on Torah thought, liturgy, and philosophy.
Lopiansky was born and raised in New York's Lower East Side, the son of Holocaust survivors. Growing up, he was immersed in Torah learning, and he attended the local Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, where he achieved high scores on statewide tests. He has stated that he was deeply influenced by his parents growing up.
His formal rabbinic training began at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem under the guidance of scholars such as Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz and Rabbi Nachum Partzovitz. He was also greatly influenced by his father-in-law, Rav Beinish Finkel, the late Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, and by his close association as a talmid (student) of Harav Moshe Shapiro.
Lopiansky began his teaching career at Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem, where he taught from 1983 to 1990. He then taught at his alma mater, the Mir Yeshiva, for five years. In 1994, the headmaster of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, Rabbi Yitzchok Merkin, reached out to Lopiansky, who was then serving as a maggid shiur at Mir Yerushalayim, with an offer to become the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva gedolah in Kemp Mill, Maryland. Lopiansky initially moved to America alone, returning to Jerusalem to ensure that he was never away from home for more than three consecutive Shabbosim. In August 2001, his wife Rebbetzin Yaffa Lopiansky and their four children joined him.
In 2019, he published a sefer, Orchos Chaim: A Ben Torah for Life. During a speech at the 2019 Aguda convention, Rav Elya Brudny notably remarked, "Every family that has made that transition [from kollel to the workplace] should own the book". Rav Yosef Elefant spoke next. âÂÂIn the modern era, there hasnâÂÂt been a sefer that touched on the topics critical to our existence, with honesty and clarity and respect, like this one has."
Lopiansky taught in the Israeli Army's Hishtalmut program, which aims to broaden the perspective of the army's officer corps by exposing them to the diverse facets of Israeli society.
He also sits on several boards, including the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Among his English-language works is Time Pieces, a collection of essays on the Jewish holidays.