4 Tevet · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzyn - the Baal HaTechelet
Rabbi Gershon Henoch ben Yaakov Leiner of Radzyn - the Baal HaTechelet (1891).
Yahrzeit - 4 Tevet
Burial place - Radzyń Podlaski, Poland
He was the Baal HaTechelet - the researcher of the Chilazon, the sea creature known from the Torah from whose blood the dye needed to produce tzitzit was obtained.
He was also the author of "Orchot Chaim," "Sod Yesharim," "Tiferet HaChanochi," and "Daltot Sha'ar HaChaim."
"Orchot Chaim" was written as a phenomenal commentary on the Tzava'ah (ethical will) of Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol.
He wrote this work in just 12 days, with almost no access to any books, during a court case involving slander fabricated against him by his opponents. When the Rebbe published this work, he told his chassidim that he was overjoyed to have succeeded in printing his Tzava'ah.
At the age of 16, the Rebbe had already formulated an impressive idea: he composed a kind of Gemara on the Mishnayot of Seder Taharot, since there is no Talmud Bavli on these tractates.
To accomplish this, he gathered all the relevant material from the entire Talmud Bavli, the Talmud Yerushalmi, and all other Baraitot. He presented them in chronological order in a sefer which he called "Sidrei Taharot on Masechet Keilim."
Later he did the same for all the other tractates of Seder Taharot. Only his works on Keilim and Oholot were published (the rest of the tractates were lost during the Holocaust). This task took him 10 years to complete.
Rabbi Gershon Henoch ben Yaakov was known as the Baal HaTechelet. He worked tirelessly to restore the techelet for tzitzit. He used his extensive knowledge to research this subject and traveled to Italy four times to conduct his research. There he visited the largest aquarium in the world (in Naples), and after studying various sea creatures, he concluded that the original blue dye for techelet was extracted from the secretion of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis - דְּיוֹנוּן.
Legend has it that during one of his visits to Rome, he managed to persuade the Vatican to let him take a quick look at the Holy Vessels of the Beit HaMikdash, in order to compare his findings with the techelet on the priestly garments.
He published several books on this subject, "Pesil Techelet, Ein HaTechelet" and succeeded in influencing many Gedolim with his work. At the same time, there were Gedolim who opposed the Rebbe's view and disagreed with his conclusions. However, there was a small number of Gedolei Yisrael who practiced the newly rediscovered mitzvah of techelet, such as Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Schwadron (the Maharsham of Berezhany), who had a tallit with techelet fringes. All of the Rebbe's chassidim and his followers wore them, as do many Breslov chassidim to this day.
(https://datewiki.ru/wiki/Gershon_Henoch_Leiner)
Pilgrimage site:
Grave: "Baal HaTechelet"