Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Wosner, 102, a leading hassidic-haredi rabbi and posek (decisor of Jewish law), died a short time after the start of the Pesach holiday. Rabbi Wosner, who lived in Bnei Brak, was known as the Shevet HaLevi after his major work.

Rabbi Wosner was hospitalized after the last Purim holiday at Maaynei Hayeshua Hospital, with severe pneumonia. His condition worsened afterward.

Rabbi Wosner was born in Vienna, Austro-Hungary and studied in the Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin in Lublin, Poland. He married and immigrated to Palestine before the Holocaust and settled in Jerusalem. It was in that time that, in spite of his young age, he became a member of the Edah HaChareidis.

When he relocated to Bnei Brak, he established the Zihron Meir neighborhood and Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, named after the European yeshiva. He is the author of several works of Jewish law, including Shevet HaLevi (“The Tribe of Levi”), a comprehensive series of halakhic rulings and responsa on Jewish laws comprising ten volumes, and several other Torah books all bearing the same name.

His halakhic opinions are widely quoted in many works on Jewish law both in Hebrew and English. He banned unfiltered internet use for the Jewish community and allowed filtered internet only for business purposes.

His sons include Rabbi Chaim Wosner, formerly dayan of London’s Satmar community, who has since moved to Bnei Brak to assist his father in the management of the Yeshiva. Another son, Rabbi Bentzion Wosner of Monsey, New York, is the av bet din of the Shevet Halevi beis din.