Rabbi Neuwirth was born in
Berlin, Germany. His father Aharon served as rabbi in a number of German communities. After Kristallnacht, he travelled to Belgium on the Kindertransport (children's convoy) but was rejoined by his parents in 1939. They settled in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During the
Second World War, the family lived in hiding, supported by the Resistance. Two of his brothers were killed. During this time, Neuwirth had little access to
rabbinic literature, apart from the volume of the popular work Mishnah Berurah that deals with the Shabbat laws.[8]
In 1946 he
immigrated illegally to Palestine, and was detained at
Atlit camp before being released and travelling to
Jerusalem, where he was accepted at the
Kol Torahyeshiva. Here he became close to one of its lecturers, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.
Rabbinic career
At Kol Torah Neuwirth wrote his best-known work on the Sabbath laws.[8] Later, he served as rosh yeshiva in three institutions:[8] the yeshiva Nesivos Chochmah, the Pnei Shmuel yeshiva ketana and Chochmas Shlomo yeshiva gedola in Jerusalem.[8][9] He also established the "Neuwirth Gemach".[10] He lived in the
Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem.[11]
Neuwirth was a leading disciple of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.[12][13] While Rabbi Auerbach issued most of his halachic rulings orally, Rabbi Neuwirth publicized many of his teacher's rulings on the laws of Shabbat in his book, first published in
Hebrew in 1965.[14][15] Additionally, 8 of the 32 chapters of this book were devoted to Rabbi Auerbach's rulings on medical halacha.[12][14]
With the publication of his book, Rabbi Neuwirth introduced a new format for studying the laws of Shabbat. While previous texts for general reference were organized according to the presentation in the
Shulchan Aruch, Neuwirth's was organised by topic and provided a clear index; he also embellished the presentation with thousands of references and comments.[14]Feldheim Publishers published the first volume of the
English-language translation in 1984; volumes 2-4 appeared in 1989, 1997, and 2001, respectively, and the current three-volume boxed set was issued in 2002.[16]
^Jachter, Rabbi Chaim (3 February 2006).
"Blood Tests and DNA - Part 1". Rabbi Jachter's Halacha Files (and other Halachic compositions). koltorah.org. Archived from
the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2011.