Shimon Gershon Rosenberg

Shimon Gershon Rosenberg was born in 1949 in Jerusalem

Rosenberg was born in Jerusalem in 1949 to Holocaust survivors and grew up in the city. He studied at the Neve Etzion school in Bayit Vegan, then at Netiv Meir high school and the hesder yeshiva Kerem B'Yavneh. His nickname Shagar came from the initials on his tallit bag in high school.

He studied at Mercaz HaRav and with Rabbi Shlomo Fisher, and married Miriam Ziv. In the Yom Kippur War he was badly burned when his tank was hit on the Golan Heights. After recovering he returned to Yeshivat HaKotel and later received rabbinical ordination.

He taught at Yeshivat HaKotel and left after internal tensions. In 1984 he helped found Yeshivat Shefa, which closed in 1988. He later led study halls at Ma'ale and Beit Morasha, and in 1996 founded Yeshivat Siach Yitzchak with Rabbi Yair Dreyfus.

His book Broken Vessels offered a religious response to postmodernism, linking it to ideas in Kabbalah and Hasidism, and drew criticism. He encouraged students to engage in the arts and wrote poetry himself. He was married and had 6 children.

In February 2007 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and moved with his wife to Givat Yeshayahu. He died in June 2007 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.