MK Rothman To Yeshivah Bochurim: “Why Me And Not My Brother?

Religous Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, one of the architects of the government’s judicial reform plan, spoke this week to the bochurim of Wolfson Yeshivah at their Bein HaZemanim getaway.

Since the government began advancing its judicial reform plan, Rothman has become a well-known figure in Israel and even in the US. But what many don’t know is that he has a Chareidi brother, HaGaon HaRav Natan Rothman, who is a well-known figure in the halls of the Beis Medrash.

HaRav Rothman is renowned in the Torah world as a prolific marbitz Torah, the head of the kibbutz [the oldest bochurim] in Wolfson Yeshivah in Bayit Vegan and the mechaber of Sharei Daas and many other sefarim. He also founded a kollel for the limud of Talmud Yerushalmi, and serves as its Rosh Kollel, and published a number of sefarim on difficult sugyos in Yerushalmi.

MK Rothman was greeted by the bochurim with the well-known right-wing chant: ‘The people demand judicial reform.’ In response, he quipped: “The truth is that this is one of the places I go to and they ask me why I came and not my brother.”

The Rothman brothers were born in Bnei Brak to a Chareidi-Dati Leumi family. HaRav Natan initially learned in Shaalvim Yeshivah but already transferred to a Chareidi yeshivah by the second year of Beis Medrash  – Ohr Yisrael in Petach Tikvah – and moved to Ponevezh several years later.

HaRav Rothman is also renowned for being exceedingly humble despite his vast knowledge of all parts of the Torah and his many Torah positions.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)