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Rabbi Ze’ev Haim LIfshitz (1935 - 2012) was a Jerusalem Torah scholar whose immense breadth and depth of scope included the secular disciplines as well as worldly knowledge. Acclaimed for his uniquely Jewish psychological method, he founded Sadnat Enosh, a Jerusalem research and guidance center where his teachings are applied in practice.

Biography
Ze’ev Haim LIfshitz was born 1935, in Tel Aviv to Eliezer Zeidel – a student of the Chafetz Chaim, an alumnus of the Chevron Yeshiva and among the founders of the Lomzhe Yeshiva – and to Chana Chasha, daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Kantarovitz; his mother’s cousins include Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik.

He was a student of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. In his youth he suffered from severe asthma, which resulted in his traveling to Switzerland. There he became assistant to Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, and participated in the writing and editing of his book of responsa, Sridei Aish. Rabbi Weinberg recommended that he take advantage of the fact that he was living in the city of Montreux, in order to study with the renowned psychologist, Jean Piaget. Rabbi Lifshitz began his psychology studies in Montreux and then continued studying in Geneva with Jean Piaget for six years.

After his return to Israel, he served as spiritual director of the first hesder yeshiva in Israel, Kerem BeYavneh, for approximately six years. In 1972 he founded Sadnat Enosh (Hebrew for “The Human Workshop”) in Jerusalem, and served as its director for over forty years. Also renowned for restoring domestic harmony to many homes, he was, in his own words, a product of the Lithuanian Yeshiva school of thought, yet unaffiliated with any specific social, political or educational current. Instead, he represented the spirit of Judaism as espoused by the great Jewish Torah scholars, both Lithuanian and Hassidic. He resided in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem, and passed away in Jerusalem on 6 October, 2012.

Psychological Method
Rabbi Lifshitz was broadly versed in psychology, philosophy and graphology, with the help of which he developed an independent psychological method that is compatible with the spirit of Judaism. As opposed to conventional psychology, in which one delves into the events and complexes of the past, Rabbi Lifshitz did not treat the negative, but rather searched for the qualitative and the positive in each individual, which he would then attach to value-based goals that were compatible with that individual’s personality, within the framework of Judaism. As Rabbi Lifshitz explained, Jewish psychology recognizes the importance of an individual’s various needs, such as possessiveness, physical urges and social needs, yet it attributes the most decisive importance to the individual’s spiritual quality. The more one exercises one’s spiritual quality, the more subservient to it one’s urges become.

Sadnat Enosh Institute
Sadnat Enosh is a center for educational and spiritual guidance, operating according to the methodology developed by Rabbi Lifshitz. The Institute is involved with a number of disciplines, among which are personal guidance and counseling, educator training, development of educational methodologies, and Jewish family guidance and counseling. The Institute contains a yeshiva as well, named for Rabbi Lifshitz’s uncle, Rabbi Yitzchak Yechiel Kantarovitz, rabbi of the town of Ghetyl, who was murdered in the Holocaust. Rabbi Lifshitz himself had originally taught the classes; today his son, Rabbi Yitzchak Lifshitz, delivers lectures and conducts classes at the yeshiva.

Publications

 * קיום ויעוד Existence and Destiny (Sadnat Enosh Publications) On the Book of Yonah (Translated from Hebrew into English, French and Russian, this is a concise version of a work originally published by Jason Aronson Publications, Inc. in English, as: The Paradox of Human Existence.)
 * זחלתי ואירא (hebrew) “I Crawled in Fearful Awe” Sadnat Enosh Publications A commentary on the weekly Torah portions.
 * מעין שלם Ma’ayan Shalem A booklet on the subject of family purity (Translated from Hebrew into English, French and Russian)
 * הנסיך הקטן היהודי (hebrew) The Jewish Little Prince Sadnat Enosh Publications, 2013