Rogatchover Gaon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rogatchover Gaon

The Rogatchover Gaon, Yosef Rosen (1858 - 3 March 1936) (Hebrew: יוסף רוזין), also known by the name of his main work Tzafnath Paneach, was a Hasidic rabbi and one of the prominent Talmudic scholars of the early 20th century, known as a "Gaon" (genius) because of his photographic memory and razor-sharp mind.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Rogachev, now in Belarus, in a Hasidic family of Kapuster Hasidim, and was educated in the local cheder (Torah school for small children). His unusual capabilities were noticed at age thirteen, when he was sent to study with Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, five years his senior, then in Slutzk. He subsequently studied under Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Maharil Diskin) in Shklov. He then assumed the rabbinate of the Hasidic community in Dvinsk, where his non-Hasidic counterpart was Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk; and they served in parallel until the late 1920's.

Among those who received semicha (Rabbinic ordination) from him were, Rabbi Mordecai Savitsky of Boston; Rabbi Zvi Olshwang (1873-?) of Chicago a brother-in-law of Rabbi Shimon Shkop; Rabbi Avrohom Elye Plotkin, the author of Birurei Halachot (a copy of the actual semicha is included in that work); and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who later became the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The Rogatchover is remembered for his breadth of Torah knowledge and caustic wit. He did not suffer inadequacy lightly. He was similarly reputed to rarely quote any rabbinic authority after Maimonides, and avoided recent rabbinic works of the Achronim in favour of the Rishonim (those preceding the late 15th century). His responses to queries of Jewish law could be enigmatic and cryptic.

He died in Vienna in 1936 after unsuccessful surgery.

[edit] Works

His main work, a commentary on Maimonides, was published during his lifetime, as well as five volumes of responsa. The remainder of his surviving writings appeared in the United States many years after his death; all are titled Tzafnath Paneach "decipherer of secrets", (a title given to the Biblical Joseph by Pharaoh (Genesis 41:45)). His manuscripts were smuggled out of Latvia during World War II by his successor Rabbi Yisrael Alter Safrin-Fuchs (1911-1942), who remained in Latvia to complete this task and probably died at the hands of the Nazis as a result. A portion of the manuscripts were edited and published by Rabbi Menachem M. Kasher of Yeshiva University.

His works include responsa and novellae on Torah and Talmud. They are regarded as difficult and inaccessible, as he employs the philosophical terminology of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed even in non-philosophical analyses. Rabbi Kasher therefore included Mefa'aneach Tzefunoth, an explanatory commentary, to facilitate understanding of the Rogatchover's influential work.