The Revered Genius Who Predicted the Future

Rabbi Meyer Simchah of Dvinsk – 99 Years Since His Passing

By: Yaakov Rosenfeld

The righteous and genius man who never got to have joy in his life, was blessed and his lips trembled in the grave, as it is said in the Talmud about those who recite Torah in his name, and today, in the centennial year since his passing, it is difficult to find a Torah community in the world that has not benefited from the Torah thoughts of Rabbi Meyer Simchah of Dvinsk, author of “Or Simchah” and “Meshech Chochma”.

The last photo of Rabbi Meyer Simchah of Dvinsk

He was a genius whose name was known throughout the world.

The genius Rabbi Yitzchak Silber z”l, in his book “Le’Hisha’er Yehudi” (Remaining a Jew) tells the story of two witnesses, one of whom is none other than Isser Harel, the former head of the Mossad, about a wonderous miracle that the genius Rabbi Meyer Simchah performed in his prayer. Isser Harel, born in Dvinsk, was a young boy at the time, and here is a copy of his testimony:

Translation of testimony in photo: And thus told Isser Harel, who was a youth at the time, in his book:

That year, the melting of snow and ice began across Russia, and at the sources of the Dvina River, even before spring arrived at the river’s mouth in the Gulf of Riga. In the area between the city of Dvinsk and the Gulf, a distance of more than 200 kilometers, a cold and freezing winter still prevailed.

This entire stretch of the river was covered with thick, stubborn ice. The surging waters, carrying huge blocks of ice, found their way to the sea – blocked. They tore apart bridges and swept away entire villages. The mighty waters hit the large embankment surrounding the city of Dvinsk and surged continuously. In a short time, they could have washed away the embankment and flooded the city. The residents began to flock to the upper floors and roofs of all the buildings, waiting at any moment for the impending disaster.

We also packed everything that could be moved and saved, and went up two floors of the building where we lived. Great anxiety gripped everyone.

The crisis reached its peak early Saturday morning. At any moment, the river could overflow its banks or breach the embankment. My father was faced with the question of whether to stay home with his family in the midst of the impending disaster, or to go to the synagogue to pray and add his prayer-beseeching to the congregation of worshippers. Finally, he decided to rush to the synagogue, and I joined him.

In the midst of the prayer, which was extremely emotional and accompanied by cries of anguish, terrified Jews burst into the synagogue and shouted that the water was about to flood the city at any moment.

Rabbi Meyer Simchah stood up from his place, wrapped in his tallis (prayershawl), and headed toward the embankment, followed by the entire congregation in tallises. The rabbi climbed onto the embankment, stood on it, and prayed for the water to recede. And indeed, while praying, the ice began to move from its place. The ice cracked, and the water began to flow down the river.

I was on the embankment, steps away from Rabbi Meyer Simchah. This situation is etched in my memory, and it is always before my eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the rumour spread through the streets of Dvinsk that Rabbi Meyer Simchah HaKohen had performed a miracle and saved the city. The city’s Christian residents, including known antisemites, were quick to see the lowering of the water as a miracle brought upon by the holy Rebbe.

However, Rabbi Meyer Simchah did not see the falling of the water as a miracle, and did not call himself “holy.” He went to present his supplication before G-d, and not to perform a miracle!

***

According to various sources, as a child they tried to kidnap him into the army, and the cantonists searched for him for hours, but he managed to hide until the horror passed.

Rabbi Meyer Simchah was born in 5603 (1843) in the city of Butrimonys, Vilna province, to his father, Rabbi Shimshon Kalonymus. His father was a great scholar and spreader of Torah. He became famous as a genius from a young age. After his marriage, he lived in Bialystok with his father-in-law. His wife supported him in trade, and he sat and studied Torah for many years.

In 5648 (1888), the genius Rabbi Reuven Halevi Dinburger, the head of the beit din (rabbinical court) of Dvinsk, passed away, and Rabbi Meyer Simchah was appointed to replace him and became the rabbi of Dvinsk.

He served as the rabbi of the city of Dvinsk for about forty years. Rabbi Meyer Simcha lived in poverty and did not want to enjoy the benefits of others. Once, the community leaders decided to increase his salary, and he opposed this, saying that his regular salary was sufficient for his needs, and he refused to accept any increase.

In the year 5662 (1902), about fourteen years after he was appointed rabbi of Dvinsk, he began printing his large book “Or Somayach” on Maimonides. Three parts were published during his lifetime in Warsaw, and the last part was printed after his death in Riga by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Jacques, the head of the Riga beit din, who also published the book “Meshech Chochma” on the Torah a year after the death of Rabbi Meyer Simcha.

In addition to his large book on Maimonides, he also wrote thoughts on the tractates of the Mishna, but many manuscripts were lost in the Holocaust. A few of his thoughts on some of the tractates were published in Israel.

Rabbi Meyer Simchah was revered among his congregation and among the people of the city of Dvinsk. The former head of the Mossad, Isser Harel (Halperin), who lived in Dvinsk in his youth, describes in his book “Bitachon V’Demokratia” (Security and Democracy) an event that stirred the city’s residents. One rainy winter, the river overflowed its banks and the water threatened to break the dam and wash the city away. Then the figure of the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Meyer Simchah, appeared, ascending the embankment and offering a prayer to the Creator of the World to have mercy on the city and its residents. A short time later, the water began to recede. This event caused a great sanctification of the Name of G-d among the city’s gentile residents.

In 5686 (1926), his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya, passed away. It is said that Rabbi Meyer Simchah bent over her coffin and said: “Chaya Chaya, don’t worry, I will come to you this year.” And indeed, that same year he passed away – on the 4th of Elul, 1866. (Aug. 14th, 1926).

(From his story on the Daat website, by Rabbi Chaim Reuven Rabinowitz)

He had one daughter and her name was Asnat. She was married to a genius and giant in Torah, named Rabbi Avraham Luftbir. This genius was a close friend of the great rabbi of the generation, Rabbi Menachem Ziemba, and the two corresponded frequently on matters of Torah. Some of the responsa between them was published by Rabbi Avraham in his book “She’elot U’Teshuvot Davar Avraham,” which is entirely dedicated to the mutual correspondence with Rabbi Meyer Simchah.

Shortly after their marriage, Asnat fell ill with an incurable illness and returned to her parents’ home.

Pleasure and comfort were not the Rabbi Meyer Simchah’s lot on earth, but his face was radiant and strength and joy were in its place. He had an incomparable good eye, and often awarded ordination and teaching certificates to young people who came to see him and ask for ordination.

An unknown chapter in his life is the terrible obituaries that were mistakenly held for him throughout the Jewish world six years before his death, due to a false advertisement that he had been killed by an assassin.

Thus, for example, in the Dvir magazine (Jerusalem, volumes A-B, 5679/1919) there appears a stirring report about the killing of the genius of the generation, while in volumes C-D, published in the month of Elul, there appears the correction, according to which “the genius is alive!” However, between the two reports, a bitter eulogy had already been prepared in Jerusalem:

A death announcement for Rabbi Meyer Simcha

A Boston newspaper reports the “death” of Rabbi Meyer Simchah

Morgen Journal, Iyar 5679, mistakenly reports the passing of Rabbi Meyer Simchah of Dvinsk. Six years ahead of time…

“At the age of seven he was already familiar with the entire Tanach, at the age of nine he was already familiar with the entire Mishna Order Nezikin and half of the Order Nashim, Gemara, with the Rashi and Tosfot commentaties… At the age of ten he had already set out to study on his own. His father did not want him to study in a yeshiva. His father had no aspirations for him to grow up to be a rabbi, but rather for Meyer Simchah’leh to be a scholar and possess good qualities…”

News about the “death” of the genius. From the Otzar Chochma forum, with gratitude to them

A rare photo of students at the Bialystok Yeshiva. Rabbi Meyer Simchah lived in this town until he was accepted as rabbi in Dvinsk. In Bialystok, Rabbi Meyer Simchah studied at the Gemilot Chassadim synagogue.

In the HaMeilitz newspaper, on Sivan 4, 5648 (May 14, 1888), a sermon by Rabbi Meyer Simchah of Dvinsk appears, in which he did not spare his criticism on the lack of charitable and aid projects in that city. He cited as an example the city of Bialystok and the countless charitable associations that were established there, from visiting the sick and disabled to an organization to supply kosher food to Jewish soldiers.

A wise man is better than a prophet – foreseeing a gloomy future

In his book “Meshech Chochma,”, Rabbi Meyer Simchah wrote terrible prophetic words, which were not understood by anyone at the time they were spoken, and only in the years of sorrow, the years of the terrible Holocaust, did everyone see that a wise man is better than a prophet and that His words were totally accurate.

Here is a quote from his his book (Mesech Chochma, on Leviticus 24):

But despite all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them nor will I reject them to annihilate them, thereby breaking My covenant that is with them, for I am the L-rd their G-d. The point is, let us look a little into the ways of the Supreme Providence, a little to understand. And this is because when the Supreme Wisdom decreed that Israel would wander in the lands for many, many years, until the time when the Divine purpose was enacted, which was a secret, it thought of ways and stratagems by which Israel would exist as a nation and not be assimilated into the nations. And the great men of the nation advised this to make barriers and restrictions, by which the nation would exist in the roar of the waves of the sea and not drown in the depths of the storm that sweeps with a strong and mighty wind.

And here is the first guide and teacher of the leaders of the nation, our old father Yaakov, who saw what would happen to us in the last days, and thought that if there were seventy men in a nation as strong and courageous as Egypt before, would they not be assimilated and become one in ten thousand. He thought of a trick and a plan, that his sons would be distinguished there by their clothes and names. Therefore, Israel was a nation in itself. And if Yaakov the father of all the tribes of Israel, was not buried there, they would have despaired of the Land of Canaan and would have settled in Egypt and considered it their homeland, and God’s purpose for them would have been nullified, because Avraham’s descendants would not be only one part of the Egyptian people. Therefore, He commanded with all His might to bury him in the Land of Canaan (Genesis 47:29-31), and they would know that the fathers of the nation and their lineage were in the Land of Canaan [when they knew of his virtue, they longed for his grave and considered him as if he were an altar, as they said, “What is an altar than atonement, etc.” And look at the Midrash that they should not make him as foreign worship, look there].

And this established in the souls of his sons a natural connection to yearn for the land of their fathers and to consider themselves as sojourners. And this (Deuteronomy 26:5) “And he sojourned there” – teaches that our father Yaakov did not go down to settle but to live there (Book of Shem). The interpretation: teaches generations in all exiles about leadership, that they should realize that they did not go down to settle but to live until the end of the time, and they would be considered in their own eyes not as citizens. And so Yosef commanded (Genesis 50:25) “God will surely remember you, and you shall take up my bones out of here.” And so did all the tribes, who in this way put a great root in the hearts of Israel. And therefore (Exodus 1:12) “And they were disgusted by the children of Israel” – who were considered in their eyes as thorns (Sotah 11:1) – just as the thorn does not become entangled and take root in other plants and trees, so were the Israelites considered to be those who did not compare themselves to the Egyptians and were separate in their characteristics and feelings, to the point that they were in the eyes of the Egyptians like a thorn. And from this the great men of the nation – headed by Ezra and the Anshei Knesset HaGedola (Great Assembly) – learned to define and restrict the nation in 18 things, to be distinct from the gentiles in all their ways, so that Israel would know that it was a sojourner and a resident in a foreign land, and that it was like olive shoots that did not mix with another group. Therefore, they said in the Jerusalem Talmud that even Eliyahu (Elijah the Prophet) could not abolish it. Meaning, as long as the Redeemer did not come and end the slavery of the kingdoms, even if the herald came and said that he would soon come, they would not abolish it, because they were the things that sustained the nation in exile, and reminded it that it was Israel and that it was in a land that was not its own.

And now, since the time Israel was among the gentiles, for many years, when none of the inhabitants of the world believed that they would exist in a wonderful way that would be beyond the imagination of an educated person, who knows the events of the days and the depths that have swept over thousands of years upon a people who were few and weak and helpless [which alone is also a wonderful and great example of the existence of the nation for a lofty Divine purpose, about which the ancients prophesied].

Here is the way of Providence, that they will rest for a period of nearly a hundred or two hundred years. After this, a stormy wind will arise, and its waves will be broken, and it will consume, destroy, and wash away without mercy, until they will be scattered in droves, they will run and flee to a faraway place, and there they will unite, become a nation, their Torah will be increased, their wisdom will become mighty, until he will forget that he is a sojourner in a foreign land, and will think that this is the homeland, and will not expect G-d spiritual salvation at the appointed time. There, a stormy wind will come even stronger, reminding him with a loud voice – “You are a Jew, and what is your name? Go, go, into a land that you do not know!”

This is how the situation of the Israelites and their existence among the nations will change, as the eye of the wise will see in the Book of Chronicles. And this is for two reasons: for the maintenance of the true religion and its purity, and for the maintenance of the nation. For when Israel rests among the nations, its Torah and its teachings will flourish and grow, and its sons will become mighty, they will stand firm against their fathers, for thus the desire of man, which the latter will renew, will add courage to what had disappeared from the old generation. And this is with human wisdom, which originates from the quarry of the human mind, and the experience of this, the latter will stand firm and add courage, as our eyes see in every generation. Not so with the divine religion that is given from heaven, and its origin is not on a hewn earth. If it had been in the Land of Israel before, would they not have stood firm in fixing the nation, each according to his generation – the Great Court could have annulled the words of the former Court. And what is required in the 13 attributes (of G-d), even a small court could show the correct way in their eyes. And see on Yom Kippur regarding the matter of shiurim (small portions of food), what they said, that in the case of souls, each one is according to the agreement of the sages of his generation, a certain set hour, will be examined there. And besides this, there was always a spiritual Divine appearance, except for the First Temple, over which the Spirit sang, and there were prophets and sons of prophets, and a gathering of those with wisdom and purity who were qualified for this, as Maimonides wrote in Hilchot Yesodai HaTorah (Laws of the Foundations of the Torah), and there was the Urim V’Tumim. Even in the Second Temple, they said that there they draw from G-d’s spirit, and there was a visible, always overlapping Divine light, which the generation did not know before. And from the conduct of the nation in temporal matters, when the law was entrusted to them to decide according to the instruction of the hour, which the hour required for it.

It is not so in the diaspora, where gathering to study Torah has dwindles, and for this reason no court of law has permission to innovate anything, as Maimonides wrote in his introduction to the book Mishneh Torah, and there is no prophet, and an iron partition separates Israel from their Father in Heaven. Such was the way of the nation, that when they enter a foreign land, they will no longer be children of Torah, as they have dwindled from the hardships and decrees and expulsion, and then the spirit of G-d will awaken in them, striving to return them to the source of their hewn stone, their holy quarry (i.e. the Torah and its ways), they will learn, they will practice Torah, they will do wonders, until the foundation of the Torah stands on its peak and height. After all, the generation has nothing to add, to set itself apart from their ancestors! What will the human being do who is capable of defining and innovating? He will criticize with a false idea what our ancestors inherited, he will invent new things by forgetting what happened to his nation when it tottered in the sea of ​​hardships, and what will happen? Soon he will return to saying, “Our ancestors inherited a lie,” and the Jews in general will forget his quarry and consider himself a fresh citizen. He will abandon his religious studies, learn languages ​​that are not his, he will prefer to live in a corrupt place rather than a righteous one, he will think that ”’Berlin”’ is Jerusalem, and as you have done with the corrupt ones, you have not done with the righteous ones. “And rejoice not, Oh Israel, on joyous occasions” (Hosea 9:1).

Then a whirlwind and a storm will come, uprooting him from his lineage, leaving him with a nation far away who has not learned his language, knowing that he is a stranger, whose language is the language of our holiness, and foreign tongues will pass away like a garment, and from his quarry is the lineage of Israel, and his consolations are the consolations of the prophets of G-d, who prophesied about the lineage of Yishai (i.e. the Messiah) at the end of days. And in his shaking he will forget his Torah, its depth, and its eloquence, and there he will rest a little, he will awaken with a holy feeling, and his sons will increase in courage, and his young men will become strong in the Torah of G-d, they will set themselves to explain the Torah at this boundary, which has already been forgotten, and in this he will be established and strengthened in courage. Such is the path of Israel from the day he was shaken –  go and look at the sayings of Devarim in the book Or Zarua… the status of the nation…

And this “I will not despise them” – despising is about the nation’s humiliation in the Torah and the spiritual enlightenment that is manifested in our written and handed down Torah. “I will not reject them” – is about exile and expulsion from place to place. “To destroy them” – is about the exile, which is a deliberate extermination and destruction of the nation. “To break my covenant with them” – is about forgetting the Torah. Only “for I am the L-rd your G-d,” he wants to say, that the humiliation and disgust is a reason that I am the L-rd their G-d. But not absolute despising and rejecting “to destroy them and to break my covenant with them,” G-d forbid. That through this, the name of the descendants of Avraham will be exalted and the nation of Avraham’s descendants will exist, descendants of faithfulness, worthy and ready to receive the Divine purpose, which G-d will call upon us in the end of days when Israel will be one nation in the land, and G-d will be One and His Name One. And we have many things to say about this and there is not enough space to do do.