10 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein - Levush Mordechai
Rabbi Moshe Mordechai bar Tzvi Chaim Epstein - Levush Mordechai - (1866–1933) was the Rosh Yeshiva of "Knesset Yisrael" in Slabodka, Lithuania, and is recognized as one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century. He is also one of the founders of the city of Hadera.
Yahrzeit - 10 Kislev
Resting place - Har HaZeitim, Jerusalem
Rabbi Epstein was born in the town of Bakst, in the Vilna district of Lithuania, on 20 Adar (1866), to Rabbi Tzvi Chaim and Bayla Chana Epstein. His father, who served as rabbi of Bakst, was affectionately called the "Black Genius" during his time at the Volozhin Yeshiva.
The brilliance of young Moshe Mordechai was recognized from an early age, and he was known as the illui of Bakst. The child prodigy began learning at the Volozhin Yeshiva at age 16 under the guidance of the legendary Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. There he met his future brother-in-law, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, and in 1889 married Menucha Frank, the elder sister of Meltzer's wife.
Perhaps one of the most influential and celebrated Torah families of that era was the family of Rabbi Sruel Feivel Frank, a wealthy fur merchant in Kovno, Lithuania, devoted to Torah and mussar. Rabbi Frank, who died of pneumonia at the age of 43, left behind four unmarried daughters, and in his will he asked that his wife Golda marry off each daughter to a young man who showed signs of being a Talmid Chacham.
The rebbetzin Frank took this mission very seriously and carefully vetted each candidate. In the end, Rabbi Frank's prayer was fulfilled. His sons-in-law became pillars of Torah Jewry in the next generation and its guides after the Holocaust.
All four sons-in-law were leaders of European Jewry: Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer of Slabodka, Rabbi Baruch Horowitz of Slabodka, Rabbi Sheftel Kramer of Slutsk, and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein.
After his marriage, Rabbi Epstein moved to his wife's hometown of Kovno, and two years later Rabbi Meltzer joined him there. In Kovno, both studied under the renowned mussar teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer, known in the yeshivas as "Reb Itzele Peterburg," one of the outstanding disciples of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. It was there that they became devoted to the study of mussar.
In 1894, both rabbis began teaching at the famous Slabodka Yeshiva, located near Kovno. In 1897, the Alter of Slabodka - Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel - the renowned mashgiach ruchani of Slabodka, invited Rabbi Epstein to become Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi Epstein accepted the position, while Rabbi Meltzer, together with some of his best talmidim, moved to the town of Slutsk to head the Ridvaz Yeshiva there.
The Slabodka Yeshiva flourished under the joint leadership of Rabbis Epstein and Finkel.
In 1924, Rabbi Epstein, the Alter, and most of the yeshiva moved to Hebron, which was then under the British Mandate in Palestine.
The yeshiva flourished for five years in Hebron, just as it had in Lithuania. At the end of August 1929, Arab mobs, incited by the antisemitic Mufti of Jerusalem, stormed the yeshiva, killing 68 Jews and wounding many others - an event known as the 1929 Hebron massacre.
Following this, the British authorities evacuated the remainder of the Jewish community. The yeshiva was relocated to the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem and was renamed Yeshivat Hebron. In 1975, Yeshivat Hebron moved to its current location in Givat Mordechai.
Rabbi Epstein is the author of the book "Levush Mordechai" (1901), which contains his chiddushim, or novellae, on the entire Talmud, particularly on Bava Kama, which made him renowned in the Torah world.
Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein passed away in Jerusalem in 1933, on 10 Kislev. He is buried on Har HaZeitim.
May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael.