Rabbi Meir Auerbach (; 1815–1878) was president of the Jewish court at

Koło Koło () is a town on the Warta River in central Poland with 23,101 inhabitants (2006). It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodship and it is the capital of Koło County. History Koło is one of the oldest towns in Poland. It was granted ...

, and author of ''Imrei Bina'' (Words of Wisdom). After his immigration to

Ottoman Palestine The region of Palestine (region), Palestine is part of the wider region of the Levant, which represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of ' ...

in 1859, he headed the Poland Kollel and became the first

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.ירחון בית יעקב No 100 Page 80
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Biography

Meir Auerbach was born in

in the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

. He was a member of the rabbinic Auerbach family. His father was Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Auerbach, rabbi of

Płock Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...

and Luntshitz, author of ''Divrei Chaim.'' Auerbach married Hindel of Kalisch. After the death of her husband, Hindel visited his grave on the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...

together with a group of women. At some point during this outing she disappeared and was never found again. According to rumors, she was seen at a convent.

Rabbinic career

Auerbach became rabbi of his hometown at the age of 25. In 1846, Auerbach was appointed president of the Jewish beit din in

, where he served for nine years. Later he moved to

Kalisz Kalisz () is a city in central Poland, and the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, with 97,905 residents (December 2021). It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Gr ...

, where he served as a rabbi and engaged in commerce. In his sermons, he encouraged members of his congregation to

immigrate Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short-t ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, to "start the process of redemption." Auerbach left Europe for the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

circa 1860, settling in

.Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 3, p.848, Meir Ben Isaac Auerbach His position in Poland was filled by Rabbi

Chaim Elozor Wax Chaim Elozor WaxAlso spelled Waks or Wachs. In Avotaynu XXIV Number 2 (Summer 2008), Dr. Neil Rosenstein in an article about matching up Rabbinical sources and Polish records points to the difficulty in tracing Rabbi Wax's records. This is due to t ...

. He founded a synagogue in the

Jewish Quarter Jewish Quarter may refer to: *Jewish quarter (diaspora), areas of many cities and towns traditionally inhabited by Jews *Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem *Jewish Quarter (), a popular name ...

of the Old City at the southern end of the Street of the Jews. Together with Rabbi Shmuel Salant he served in the Jerusalem Chief Rabbinate and took over while Salant went abroad to collect funds. In Jerusalem, there were many

kollel A kollel (also kolel) (, , , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced Torah study, study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features Shiur (Torah), shiurim (lectures) and ...

s, each working for the benefit of their own communities. There was no umbrella organization to handle general Jewish affairs, such as paying the salaries of rabbis, paying Turkish military taxes, and dealing with Turkish officials. In 1866, Auerbach and Salant organized the first centralized committee to represent the interests of all the Ashkenazim, while the

Sephardim Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendan ...

managed their affairs under the leadership of the

Hakham Bashi ''Hakham Bashi - חכם באשי'' (, , ; ; translated into French as: khakham-bachi) is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's History of the Jews in Turkey, Jewish community. In the time of the Ottoman Empire it was also used for ...

of Jerusalem. Auerbach, who had been a successful merchant in Europe, lived off his personal wealth and refused to accept a salary. He aided many charitable institutions in Jerusalem and was a supporter of Jewish agricultural settlement around the country. He headed a society which attempted to purchase land for settlement in

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

, a project that was eventually abandoned. Auerbach was one of the founders of Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood.

Religious rulings

''Minhag Yerushalayim''

In his ''

sefer Sefer may refer to: * Sefer (Hebrew), a term for a book People with the surname * Franjo Šefer (born 1905), Yugoslav tennis player * Bela Šefer, Yugoslav footballer playing in 1924 People with the forename * Sefer Reis, Turkish privateer and O ...

'', ''Imrei Binah'', Auerbach promulgated the wedding custom known as ''Minhag Yerushalayim'', which does not permit musical instruments to be played at a wedding in Jerusalem proper in deference to the Holy Temple which lies in ruins in that city. According to this custom, only percussion instruments are allowed. Auerbach's decision was accepted by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, and later Rabbanim of Jerusalem.

Kosher etrogs

Auerbach and Salant considered the Balady citron, cultivated in the

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village of Umm el-Fahm, as the most kosher species of

etrog Etrog (, plural: ; Ashkenazi Hebrew: , plural: ) is the yellow citron (''Citrus medica'') used by Jews during the weeklong holiday of Sukkot as one of the four species. Together with the ''lulav'', ''hadass'', and ''Aravah (Sukkot), aravah'', th ...

.Rabbi Shmuel Salant
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auerbach, Meir 1815 births 1878 deaths 19th-century rabbis in Jerusalem 19th-century Polish rabbis Ashkenazi rabbis in Ottoman Palestine Chief rabbis of Jerusalem Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Emigrants from Congress Poland to the Ottoman Empire