With the death of Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Shach Friday morning, grief descended on the worldwide ultra-orthodox ("Haredi") community, for whom he was considered the spiritual leader and one of the most important rabbinical authorities of the Twentieth Century.

Rabbi Shach, aged 103, died at 1:30am, surrounded by disciples, who tore their garments, sang psalms and cried the "Shma Yisrael" prayer at the hour of his death.

His funeral Friday morning, which left from Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, brought tens of thousands of mourning ultra-orthodox Jews to accompany their spiritual mentor to his final rest.

Although Shach's health had deteriorated sharply in recent months, and especially since he was was rushed to hospital earlier this week, his death sent shockwaves through the global Haredi community.

Questions of succession and ongoing political influence
Much speculation surrounds the question of who will succeed Rabbi Shach. The last of the previous generation of rabbis, he was the unchallenged leader of the Lithuanian camp and even his Hasidic rivals accepted his greatness. Although Shach came from an Ashkenazi (European) background, he was instrumental in forming the Sephardi Torah Guardians movement, composed largely of Sephardic Jews from Middle Eastern countries.

Shach parted ways with the Agudath Israel religious party in 1988 to form the Degel Hatorah ("Flag of Torah") movement, which reunited in 1992 with Agudath Israel to form the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party.

To a large extent, Shach's key role in Israeli politics has been transferred to the rival Shas party, who spiritual leader is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In 1992, Schach tried to excommunicate Yosef and Shas, but the leap of Shas from six mandates to 17 in that election transformed the party into a force that dwarfed the Ashkenazi UTJ in power.

Rabbi Shach terminated his active involvement in political activities in 1996, after he urged his followers to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu, considered one of the keys to the Likud candidate's election victory over Shimon Peres.

United Torah Judaism (UTJ) originally supported the subsequent Barak government, but Barak's support for drafting ultra-Orthodox youths along with the attempt of former Minister of Religious Affairs Yossi Beilin's to dismantle the ministry caused Shach to abandon that support. Rabbi Shach fiercely opposed the draft of Haredi men.

Today UTJ, led by Rabbi Meir Porush, holds 5 seats in the Sharon-led coalition government. Minister Eli Yishai currently is the leader of Shas, under Ovadia Yosef's influence and he has no connection whatsoever to Schach.

A Genius from Lithuania
Eliezer Menachem Shach was born on January 22, 1898 in the remote village of Wabolnick in northern Lithuania. Recognized as a genius at the age of seven, he was sent to a religious school in Ponevezh, where he lived in the home of a wealthy local Jew. By the time he was 13, Shach had outgrown Ponevezh, and was sent to the Knesset Yisrael yeshiva in Slobodka, where his intellectual potential attracted the attention of the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. When Rabbi Meltzer left to establish a new yeshiva in Slutsk, Shach accompanied him.

Rabbi Meltzer became Schach's patron, and arranged a matrimonial match with his niece, Guttel, from the village of Mir. Their three children -- Miriam Raisel, Devorah and Ephraim -- were born in Kletsk, Lithuania in the early 1920s. In 1939, the eldest daughter, Miriam Raisel, died of pneumonia, aged 14. During World War II, while his rabbinical mentor sought refuge in the United States, Schach chose to go to Palestine.

The first yeshiva Shach headed in this country was Hayishuv Hahadash, affiliated with the national religious camp. After that, he become the head of the Kletsk yeshiva in Rehovot. Both institutions became yeshiva high schools in the national religious system, a fact that did not endear him to some in the traditionally non-Zionist ultra-Orthodox community. In the 1940s, a few years after the establishment of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, he was invited to be one of its heads -- a position he held until his death.

Rabbi Schach was appointed to the Council of Torah Sages, and became president of the group, generally regarded as the supreme council of the ultra-orthodox establishment. His Schach's wife Guttel died in 1969, due to complications from diabetes. His son Ephraim, who holds a doctorate in philosophy and works as a supervisor for the Ministry of Education, joined the national religious camp. Ephraim's children, Amalia and Doron, lead secular lives. Doron served as a paratrooper in the IDF and later worked as an undercover agent in the police narcotics division.

Rabbi Schach's daughter, Devorah, married a Torah scholar, Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman. When she became ill, Rabbi Schach played a major role in raising and educating their children.

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