HARAV EPHRAIM GREENBLATT, zt”l, (1932 – 2014) author of Rivevos Ephraim and a talmid muvhak of HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, was born in 1932 in Yerushalayim. His father, HaRav Avraham Baruch Greenblatt, zt”l, was known to the Gedolim of Yerushalayim at that time as the “Masmid from Brisk,” and was the son of the well-known darshan from Brisk, HaRav Yitzchak Greenblatt, z”tl. Reb Ephraim’s mother was the daughter of Reb Chanoch Birenstock of Lodz.

Over the course of his youth and adolescence, he studied under HaRav Avraham Dovid Levin, HaRav Tikochinsky, zt”l, HaRav Tzvi Yehudah Meltzer, the son of HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer, zt”l, HaRav Elazar Shach, zt”l, HaRav Zevulun Graz, zt”l, the Av Beit Din of Rechovot, and the Chazon Ish, zt”l.

At the age of 19, he began serving as a Rav in a shul in New York. Concurrently, he began learning in Mesivtha Tiferes Jerusalem, headed by HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, who became Reb Ephraim’s rebbi muvhak.

In 1952, Reb Moshe sent Reb Ephraim to Memphis, Tennessee to infuse the Jews with Yiddishkeit and help the community grow. Rav Greenblatt remained in Memphis for the next half a century, acting as Rabbi, shochet, mohel, Rosh Yeshiva, Rosh Kollel, and beloved third grade Rebbe.

With such a rich mesorah spanning the entire spectrum of minhagim, Reb Ephraim was able to meld all the perspectives he had gleaned and created a very humanistic approach to psak halacha. While his own student’s described him as being “like iron,” a very disciplined student of Rav Moshe with a strict adherence to halacha, his community remembers him as warm, caring, approachable, and sensitive. With children living in Eretz Yisrael, Rav Greenblatt began visiting Israel frequently towards the end of his life and returned there to live before his death. Rabbi Gerzi met Rav Greenblatt on one of his trips and kept in touch with him for the next decade, eventually doing shimush and getting semicha from him in 2009.

Rabbi Gerzi learned a tremendous amount of halacha with Rabbi Greenblatt and, more fundamentally, learned Rav Greenblatt’s approach to halacha. With a deep appreciation for mental and emotional health and a strong sense of human nature, Rabbi Greenblatt taught Rabbi Gerzi how to look at a person’s entire situation while making a psak, and to read the person’s non-verbal cues to understand their mental and emotional state, to notice when they are holding something back, and to make them feel safe to share their true, full experiences without judgement. During his time learning with Rav Greenblatt, Rabbi Gerzi would make monthly trips to visit his various other teachers and gedolim from whom he learned, and he had the privilege of being asked to provide those Rabbaim with Rav Ephraim’s take on various issues in contemporary halacha, and to carry messages back to Rav Ephraim.

What impacted me incredibly deeply about Rabbi Greenblatt was his out of the box halachic thinking; and being a loyal student of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. He went out to the middle of nowhere and built what he built, because he trusted his Rebbe.