Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin

Rabbi Yehoshua Leib bar Binyamin Diskin - an outstanding halachic authority, one of the spiritual leaders of his generation. Yahrzeit - 29 Tevet Resting place - הר הזיתים, Jerusalem   Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin (1818–1898), also known as the Maharil Diskin, was born in the city of Grodno and was famous from childhood as an ilui (child prodigy). He was a leading rabbi, Talmudist, and commentator on the Torah. He served as rabbi in Lomza, Mezritch, Kovno, Shklov, and Brisk, and finally in Jerusalem, after moving to Eretz Yisrael in 1878. Rav Diskin was born in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1817. His father, Binyamin Diskin, was the rabbi of that city, and later of Volkovysk and then Lomza. He was engaged before his bar mitzvah and at the age of fourteen married the daughter of Rabbi Brode, living with his father-in-law in Volkovysk. He received rabbinic ordination at the age of 18 and inherited his father's rabbinate in Lomza at the age of 25. In 1878, Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin left his rabbinic post in Brisk-Litovsk and moved to the Holy Land, where he became the recognized leading rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem. The city's large religious community was then living in almost impossible conditions. The persecution and illness suffered by the Jews of the Holy Land led Diskin to open an orphanage in the Old City, after he had brought needy children into his own home. Diskin's orphanage was officially established in 1881. It moved from the Jewish Quarter to Prophets Street, outside the walls of the Old City. Diskin's second wife, Sara, known as the Brisker Rebbetzin, brought 40,000 rubles into the marriage, which were used to support this institution. She had a very sharp mind and came from a prestigious family descended from Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the "Noda BiYehuda," and Yehoshua Zeitlin. She passed away in 1907. In the 1880s, Diskin was offered the position of Chief Rabbi of New York, which he declined. Diskin founded a yeshiva called "Ohel Moshe" (Tent of Moshe). He opposed the attempts of the maskilim to introduce secular institutions in Jerusalem. His son was Rabbi Yitzchak Yeruchem Diskin. Rav Diskin passed away in 1898, on 29 Tevet. He is buried on Har HaZeitim. Diskin Street in Jerusalem is named after him. The Gaon Rav Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky said that Rav Diskin was one of the 36 perfectly righteous ones upon whom the world stands. He wrote: "In every generation there are tzadikim of the highest order, touched by the spirit of Divine providence," as it is said in tractate Sukkah (45b): "The world never has fewer than thirty-six righteous people to whom the Holy Shechinah is revealed every day." May the merit of the tzadik protect our people! (https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/611-Rabbi-Yehoshua-Yehuda-Leib-Diskin)