Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk | |
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| Personal life | |
| Born | 1843 (1843) |
| Died | 14 August 1926(1926-08-14) (aged 82–83) |
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| Occupation | Rabbi inDvinsk |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
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| Yahrtzeit | 4Elul 5686 |
Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (also known as Meir Simcha Ha-Kohen, 1843 – 14 August 1926) was anOrthodox rabbi in theRussian Empire andLatvia. A leader of the Jewish community inDaugavpils, he is known for his writings on Maimonides'Mishneh Torah, which he titledOhr Somayach, as well as hisnovellae on theTorah, titledMeshech Chochma.
Meir Simcha was born inButrimonys (Yiddish:Baltrimantz),Vilna Governorate, in theRussian Empire (nowLithuania) to Samson Kalonymus, a local wealthy merchant. According to family tradition, his later success inTorah study was attributed to two blessings his parents had received from local rabbis before his birth. He received his education locally, and managed to evade the regular roundups of Jewish boys that were being held as a result of theCantonist decrees that had been in effect since 1827. After marrying in 1860, at age 17, he settled inBiałystok,Grodno Governorate (nowPoland), where his wife opened a business in order to support him while he continued hisTalmudic studies.
After turning down many rabbinical positions that were offered him during his 27 years in Białystok, Meir Simcha finally relented and accepted the rabbinate of themitnagdim (non-Hasidic Jews) in the town of Dvinsk,Vitebsk Governorate (nowDaugavpils,Latvia). He served in that position for 39 years until his death. His counterpart there was Yosef Rosen, a Hasidic rabbi known as theRogatchover Gaon—or by his work,Tzofnath Paneach. The two had great respect for one another—despite Rosen's fiery temper—and on occasion referred questions inJewish law to each other. They also shared a love for the works ofMaimonides.
In 1906, a certain Shlomo Friedlander claimed to have discovered and then published two tractates of theJerusalem Talmud that had been considered to have been lost for hundreds of years. Meir Simcha was one of a group of prominent rabbis[a] who discovered that the work was a very clever forgery, and denounced it as such.[1]
In Dvinsk, he received supplicants from the entire region, and was frequently consulted on issues affecting the community at large, includingPoland andLithuania. He reportedly turned down offers for the rabbinate in various large cities, includingJerusalem,[1]New York City andKovno.
Meir Simcha opposed the non-religiousZionist groups,[2][3] but expressed his approval ofReligious Zionism.[4] After theBalfour Declaration, he was of the opinion that theThree Oaths were no longer in effect.[5] He was present at the founding meetings ofAgudath Yisrael in the German town ofBad Homburg, but could not attend the first large conference inKatowice due to poor health. He had several clashes with some of his contemporaries, includingYisrael Meir Kagan (the Chafetz Chaim) on political issues and questions of Jewish law.
It is harder to determine his exact stance in philosophical matters, although much can be gleaned from hisMeshech Chochma.[b] His main contribution toJewish philosophy was to be posthumous. His studentMenachem Mendel Zaks publishedMeshech Chochma, which contains novellae on theTorah, but very often branches off into questions of Jewish philosophy. Meir Simcha is often quoted as having predictedthe Holocaust in a statement in this work: "They think that Berlin is Jerusalem ... from there will come the storm winds that will uproot them".[6]
Meir Simcha had one daughter with mental issues who predeceased him. He mentions a son-in-law, Avraham (Luftvir), in his bookMeshech Chochma.[7] The couple died young and are buried inWarsaw.[8] Meir Simcha died in a hotel inRiga while seeking medical treatment. He left no living descendants. As a result of this, one of his most prominent students and close friend Yisrael Avraham Abba Krieger committed himself to carrying on his legacy.
Meir Simcha authoredOhr Somayach (orOhr Sameiach;lit. 'joyful light'),[c] a collection of novellae on Maimonides'Mishneh Torah. His approach is highly original, gathering material from the breadth of Jewish religious literature to approach difficult contradictions in Maimonides' main work of Jewish law. It was published during his lifetime and immediately became popular. Other works, novellae on theTalmud andresponsa, did not have the same impact but are still used for reference.
In the late 1970s, severalbaal teshuvayeshivas underHaredi auspices were founded and chose to honor the memory of Meir Simcha of Dvinsk by naming their institutions after hispen name "Ohr Somayach". The first of these was the yeshivaOhr Somayach, Jerusalem in Israel, and another wasOhr Somayach, Monsey in the United States. Other branches were established inToronto andMontreal in Canada, and inDetroit,Los Angeles, andPhiladelphia. Other branches worldwide bearing the nameOhr Somayach areOhr Somayach, South Africa, and those inLondon in the United Kingdom,Kiev in Ukraine, andSydney in Australia.
Meir Simcha ha-Cohen of Dvinsk (the Ohr Sameach, 1843-1926) spoke of the 'conspiracy' of Herzl and Nordau and their 'abominable movement.'
Rabbi Meir Simcha ha-Cohen of Dvinsk declared that 'the Zionist vision is driving Israel to destruction, Heaven forbid'.
