Rabbi Michael Taubes has been involved in Jewish education, formal as well as informal, for over forty years, serving both in the classroom and in various administrative posts. He is presently a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and at The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy- Yeshiva University High School for Boys. In addition, he is the spiritual leader of Congregation Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck, New Jersey, and delivers regular Shiurim and lectures both there and at the Beis Medrash of Bergen County, among other venues, which enjoy wide-spread popularity for their breadth of sources and clarity of presentation. He has also given classes for Naaleh, an on-line educational program. Many of his presentations may be found on the YUTorah website.
An alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion (“Gush”) in Israel, where he was a student of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, zt’l, Rabbi Taubes attended Yeshiva College and was honored upon graduation in 1980 with an award for excellence in Talmud. He subsequently studied in the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, where he learned for several years in the Shiur of the revered Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt’l, and from where he received his ordination. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Jewish Education from Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School and then spent a number of years learning in Yeshiva’s Marcos and Adinah Katz Kollel, headed by Rabbi Hershel Schachter, shlita, with whom he continues to maintain a close relationship. Recognizing the need to spread Torah to people outside the sphere of influence of the yeshiva classroom and the Beis Medrash, Rabbi Taubes, who worked for a number of years with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), helped found The Jewish Learning Experience of Bergen County, a communal adult outreach institution, which he directed for many years and with which he remain affiliated. Rabbi Taubes is the author of The Practical Torah, a collection of articles on topics in Halachah based on the weekly Parshah, as well as of numerous essays on an array of Torah subjects which have appeared in various Jewish publications. He has also done work for ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications as a writer and editor, co-edited High Holiday Machzorim and a Siddur featuring the comments of Rabbi Soloveitchik as well as a series focusing on Rabbi Soloveitchik’s insights on the holidays, and has been involved in other Torah literature projects under the auspices of RIETS, the Orthodox Union, and others.
Rabbi Taubes resides in Teaneck with his wife and family.