Osher Weiss



Osher (Usher, Asher) Zelig Weiss (Hebrew: אשר וייס; born March 25, 1953) is a posek (decider on points of Jewish law), rosh kollel (dean) of Machon Minchas Osher L’Torah V’Horaah and author of the Minchas Osher. He grew up in a Klausenberger hasidic family in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Biography
Weiss was born in the United States where his father, Holocaust survivor Moshe Weiss, was a real estate agent. He studied at Sanz institutions in the United States. In 1966 the family immigrated to Israel and lived in Kiryat Sanz in Netanya, where he studied and was close to Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam. In 2005 he founded Yeshivat Darchei Torah, which he headed. In its early years, Rabbi Baruch Dov Povarsky, head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, worked with him.

Weiss is a Torah scholar whose lectures and halachic responsa influence poskim (deciders of points of Jewish law) internationally. Weiss is posek for Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center, maintains a rabbinic court, Beis Din Tzedek Darchei Torah, and heads kollelim (religious schools for adult men). The Keren Hachesed ‘Chasdei Pesia’ is a charity established in memory of his wife, Pesia Yenta Weiss. He is the Rosh Kollel of Machon Minchas Osher L’Torah V’Horaah.

Weiss wrote the Minchas Osher books on Jewish holidays, Torah, medicine and responsa. In 2021 he published a volume of the Minchas Asher responsa, which deals with the issues raised by the coronavirus in Israel and its implications in Halakha (Jewish law).

Family
Weiss was married to Pesiah Zalmanowitz, the daughter of Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Zalmanowitz, and together, they had 6 children. She died in 2018.