Who Knows 46

Omer Home
Who Knows
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40 41 42
43 44 45 46 47 48 49

Rav Ovadia Bartenura (1445 [or 1450]-1500 [or 1520]). He lived in Italy in the second half of the 15th century and eventually moved to Yerushalayim. He was well known for his role as a Rav in Bartinura, Italy, and for his illuminating Pirush on the Mishnah. He also wrote Omer Nekeh, a supercommentary on Rashi’s peirush on Chumash. Considered one of the wealthiest mean in all of Italy, he settled in Yerushalayim in 1488.

Rav Yisrael (ben Baruch) Hager of Vizhnitz, the Ahavas Yisrael (1860-1936). The grandson of Rav Menachem Mendel of Vizhnitz (the Tzemach Tzedek), he succeeded his father, the Imrei Baruch, as Admor of Vizhnitz after the latter’s petira in 1893. He was Admor for over 40 years, during which time, Vizhnitz grew to several tens of thousands of Chasidim. Rav Yisrael had four sons, Rav Menachem Mendel of Visheva, Rav Chaim Meir (the Imrei Chaim), Rav Eliezer, and Rav Baruch. Rav Yisrael’s remains were moved to Bnai Brak in 1950.

Rav Chaim Elazar (ben Tzvi Hirsch) Shapira of Munkacs, the Minchas Elazar, (1871-1937). He was a fifth generation descendent of the founder of the Dinov dynasty, Rav Tzvi Elimelech (the Bnei Yisas’char). He learned under his father, the Stryzower Rebbe, author of Darkei Teshuvah on Yoreh De’ah. He succeeded his father as Rav of Munkacs in 1914. Munkacs (or Munkacevo) for centuries the capital of Carpathian Russia , belonged to Hungary before World War I and to Czechoslovakia when that country was created after World War I. He had no children with his first wife, and they decided to divorce. His second wife bore him one daughter, Frimet. From his youth and on, he completed the entire Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi every two years. He was a prolific author. In addition to Minchas Elazar, he wrote Nimukei Orach Chaim, Os VeShalom on the laws of tefillin and milah, and many other sefarim. In 1930, he fulfilled a lifelong desire and visited Eretz Yisrael with his 13 year old cousin and son in law to be, Baruch Yerachmeil Yehoshua Rabinowicz . Sadly the Munkacser died only four years after his daughter’s wedding in 1933. Soon after his petira, most of the 15,000 Munkatch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Rav Barukh, his son in law, – after saving thousands and unsuccessfully attempting to convince other Chassidim to go with him -- made aliyah, and later established a kehilla in Sao Paulo , Brazil , remaining for fifteen years.  He then returned to Israel , where he became the Rabbi of Cholon and later established a Beis Medrash in Petach Tikvah which he led until his passing in 1999.

Rav Mordechai Yechezkiahu ben Shimon (1994)

Rav Yaakov Wehl (1937-2007). He was born in Germany in 1937, and in early 1939, the Wehls left Germany, settling in Boro Park. Yaakov learned at Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef (RJJ). In 1959, he married Hadassah Galinsky. Rabbi Wehl began learning in the kollel of Yeshiva Ohr HaTorah, under Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, in Bensonhurst. At the time, he attended law school at night but eventually decided to leave law school and go into chinuch, spending his years at Allentown, Pennsylvania; Monsey; Hebrew Academy of Nassau County for 27 years; and Bais Yaakov of Boro Park Elementary School, where he served as principal for 12 years. Rabbi Wehl authored the very popular Haggadah “Ki Yeshalcha Bincha” in lashon kodesh, which was later translated into English and published by ArtScroll as “The Haggadah with Answers.” He was Daf Yomi maggid shiur for many years. He authored seforim on various mesechtos, include Shekolim, Moed Katan, Chagiga, Horios, Me’ilah and Kerisus. He also wrote a weekly Daf Yomi column in the Yated on Seder Nashim. In 1987, Rabbi and Mrs. Wehl authored the book “House Calls to Eternity” about the life story of their mother, Dr. Selma Wehl, who was a pediatrician in Boro Park for over sixty years, helping people until she was in her nineties. In 2001, Rabbi and Mrs. Wehl moved to Lakewood, enabling themto be near their children. A shul was founded at the home of his son, Rabbi Moshe Wehl, on Sharon Court, and named for his father, R’ Aharon Wehl -- Bais Medrash Ohel.