Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshis'cha: His Life and Teachings - Tapa blanda

Rabbi Simcha of Pshis'cha describes the life and times of a unique hasidic tsadik of the eighteenth century. It provides a glimpse into his teachings through his essays and his creative and inspiring parables.

Dr. H. M. Rabinovits was born in Uniyov, Poland in 1908. He came from a long line of rabbis and scribes, tracing his lineage back to Rabbi Shlomo HaCohen, otherwise known as 'Tiferet Shlomo', the founder of the Radomsk chasidim. He studied in the yeshiva Torat Chayim and was ordained as a rabbi in 1931. In 1934, he emigrated to Palestine. While working as an upholsterer in Jerusalem, he enrolled in a teachers college and became a teacher in the city of Safed, a city which was predominatingly mystical and spiritual. Dr. Rabinovits taught at Bar Ilan University. Later, he taught at Tel Aviv University and eventually became head of the Department of Talmud until he retired in 1977. A life-long learner, at the age of 50, Dr. Rabinovits received his doctorate from Hebrew University on Midrashim of the Halacha and Midrashim of Agada in the Piyyutim of Yannai. In 1932, at the age of 24, he published his first book on the Yehudi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yitschak Yaacov of Pshis'cha. He subsequently wrote Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshis'cha, and The Magid of Kosnets. He received the esteemed Bialik Prize for Jewish Thought for his great book, The Machzor of the Piyyutim of Yannai for Torah and the Holidays. Dr. Rabinovits also published numerous articles in various newspapers, journals, and books. He was a scholar who maintained a critical and objective approach to his research. However, his love of early chasidism in Poland permeates every page of his writings and touches the soul of the reader.