1 Nisan · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman - Dayan of Pápa
Rabbi Moshe Yosef ben Michael Hoffman, Dayan of Pápa (1843–1928), was a leading Torah authority in Hungary and Jerusalem.
Yahrzeit - 1 Nissan
Resting place - Har HaZeitim, Jerusalem
Son of Michael Hoffman, a student of the Chatam Sofer. In 1882 he was appointed Dayan and posek of Pápa (Hungary). In 1909 he immigrated to Jerusalem, where he established his own Beit Midrash and earned a reputation as one of the city's most distinguished rabbis. He is the author of "Meir Be'er VeMayim Chaim."
Rav Moshe Yosef Hoffman was renowned for his holiness. He received semicha from his great rabbi, Yehuda Asad, and served as Rosh Yeshiva in Serdahely. He was honorably appointed Dayan of Pápa from 1882 to 1906. In the last 20 years of his life he moved up to Jerusalem and toiled in Torah at the Beit Midrash in the Batei Ungarin neighborhood.
He would sit all day crowned with his tefillin and wrote thousands of pages of Torah novellae, placing them all in the attic of the Beit HaKnesset, where they later disappeared. He was known as a holy Gaon, a miracle worker, and a great tzadik, and he merited a vision of Eliyahu HaNavi.
Among his esteemed students were the luminaries of the generation: Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel Weiss of Shimoni (Nagysimonyi, Hungary) and the holy Gaon Rabbi Yehoshua Buxbaum of Galanta, and the Rav of Jerusalem, Maran Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, considered him one of his own Rabbis.
A letter has survived from Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel Weiss of Shimoni, addressed to his teacher, Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman of Pápa.
Written entirely by hand and signed by Rav Sheftel (1926):
"I wish to see from the Admor's handwriting that I may know that good has come to the Admor... and may G-d grant him health, just as Moshe Rabbeinu was strengthened when he was eighty years old."
At the end of his letter he writes: "And please... honor me with your holy handwriting, and then I will hold a Seudat Hoda'ah for having merited from G-d that the great Admor was healed."
An inscription written and signed by hand by the Dayan of Pápa: "I acquired this in honor of my Creator, Moshe Yosef, son of R. M. Hoffman, Dayan of Pápa."
A page of New Year's blessings - signed by Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman, "Dayan of Pápa."
Rav Moshe Yosef Hoffman was renowned for his holiness. He received semicha from his great rabbi, Yehuda Asad, and served as Rosh Yeshiva in Serdahely. He was honorably appointed Dayan of Pápa from 1882 to 1906. In the last 20 years of his life he moved up to Jerusalem and toiled in Torah at the Beit Midrash in the Batei Ungarin neighborhood.
He would sit all day crowned with his tefillin and wrote thousands of pages of Torah novellae, placing them all in the attic of the Beit HaKnesset, where they later disappeared. He was known as a holy Gaon, a miracle worker, and a great tzadik, and he merited a vision of Eliyahu HaNavi.
Among his esteemed students were the luminaries of the generation: Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel Weiss of Shimoni (Nagysimonyi, Hungary) and the holy Gaon Rabbi Yehoshua Buxbaum of Galanta, and the Rav of Jerusalem, Maran Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, considered him one of his own Rabbis.
A letter has survived from Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel Weiss of Shimoni, addressed to his teacher, Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman of Pápa.
Written entirely by hand and signed by Rav Sheftel (1926):
"I wish to see from the Admor's handwriting that I may know that good has come to the Admor... and may G-d grant him health, just as Moshe Rabbeinu was strengthened when he was eighty years old."
At the end of his letter he writes: "And please... honor me with your holy handwriting, and then I will hold a Seudat Hoda'ah for having merited from G-d that the great Admor was healed."
An inscription written and signed by hand by the Dayan of Pápa: "I acquired this in honor of my Creator, Moshe Yosef, son of R. M. Hoffman, Dayan of Pápa."
A page of New Year's blessings - signed by Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman, "Dayan of Pápa."