Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dinov
(צבי אלימלך שפירא מדינוב)
(1783-1841) was a leading
Hasidic
Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...
Rebbe
A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, founder of the Dinov Dynasty.
He was a prolific writer, best known as the author of ''Bnei Yissachar'', by which title he is also called.
He is also referred to by the Hebrew acronym מהרצ"א.
Biography
Tzvi Elimelech was a nephew of
Elimelech of Lizhensk
Elimelech Weisblum of Lizhensk (1717–March 11, 1787) was a rabbi and one of the founding Rebbes of the Hasidic movement. His hometown was Leżajsk () near Rzeszów in Poland. He was part of the inner "Chevraya Kadisha" (Holy Society) school o ...
Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin
Yaakov Yitzchak HaLevi Horowitz (), known as "the Seer of Lublin" (), ''ha-Chozeh MiLublin''; (c. 1745 - August 15, 1815) was a Hasidic rebbe from Poland.
"Rabbi Yaacov Yitzchak, the Chozeh of Lublin, is one of the truly beloved figures of Chassi ...
and Yisroel Hopstein.
According to a tradition, he was informed by Yaakov Yitzchak, that he was a descendant of the
tribe of Issachar
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar () was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and one of the ten lost tribes. In Jewish tradition, the descendants of Issachar were seen as being dominated by religious scholars and influential in ...
.
He became rabbi of several cities of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, chiefly
Dynów
Dynów () (, , ) is a small town in Rzeszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 6,058 (02.06.2009).
History
Dynów was first mentioned in written sources in 1423. At that time, together with other villages, it belong ...
.
He was known as a stubborn opponent of the
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Wester ...
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
.
His grave in Poland became a place of pilgrimage for the
Hasidim
Ḥasīd (, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observance of Jewish ...
.
Of interest is that the Bnei Yissaschar had the practice of wearing ''
tefillin
Tefillin (Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ; Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls o ...
'' (phylacteries) made from ''dakos'', i.e. "refined", leather, whereas these are generally manufactured with ''gasos'', robust, leather. His ''tefillin'' therefore wore out regularly, and the Bnei Yissaschar had several throughout his lifetime; see image.
Works
Rabbi Spira's best known work is the ''Bnei Yissaschar'' ( בני יששכר; "
Tribe of Issachar
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar () was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and one of the ten lost tribes. In Jewish tradition, the descendants of Issachar were seen as being dominated by religious scholars and influential in ...
").
It is described as "one of the most important and oft-quoted of the classic chassidic texts".''Bnei_Yissaschar'' sefaria.org It discusses mystical aspects of the
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...
and
festivals
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
and is arranged according to the
months of the year
A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, that is approximately as long as a natural phase cycle of the Moon; the words ''month'' and ''Moon'' are cognates. The traditional concept of months arose with the cycle of Moon phases; such lunar m ...
. The title of the work is based on the verse "Of the Issacharites, men who knew how to interpret the signs of the times" (
I Chronicles
The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...
12:33), an allusion to the book's explanation of the Jewish festivals.
Rabbi Spira authored numerous other works also, spanning various topics.
These include books on Chassidut and mussar, the ''Halachik'' aspects of the festivals, and separate commentaries on
Mishna
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
, on various
Talmudic
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...
tractates, and on
Torah
The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...