3 Adar · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe - Baal HaLevushim
3 Adar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Mordechai ben Avraham Yaffe - "Baal HaLevushim" - talmid of the Rema and the Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria), who wrote 10 books called the Levushim (garments).
Yahrzeit - 3 Adar
Burial place - Posen, Poland
The halachist and kabbalist known as the "Baal HaLevushim" (master of the garments) - Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe was born in Prague and was sent to Poland, at the time the center of the Ashkenazi Jewish world, to study with Rabbi Maharshal and Rabbi Moshe Isserles (the Rema) using the method of Talmud study known as "pilpul".
After that he went to Venice, where he studied astronomy and philosophy for 10 years, and where he became an opponent of pilpul.
He studied Kabbalah with Rabbi Mattityahu ben Solomon Delacrut.
His major work is "Levush Malchut" (literally "royal garment"), divided into 10 sections known as the "Levushim." It was this work that gave him the nickname "Baal HaLevushim".
In 1590, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, together with 30 other rabbis of Poland and Lithuania, signed an agreement forbidding a rabbi from receiving any money or gifts on account of his status, either directly or through intermediaries.
Based on his research in astronomy, he changed the previously accepted measure of halachic hours. As he himself testifies in the book "Levush Malchut," in the laws of the morning prayer, halacha 233:
"It seems to me that 'from dawn to dusk' refers to 12 hours, as stated in astronomical texts."
And in paragraph 267 he writes: "But I must say that in their time, they did not deal with works of astronomy, and considered that the day, which the rabbis divided into 12 hours, went from dawn to the appearance of the stars"!
Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe passed away in Poznan, where he served as rabbi until his final days.
The Beauty of Rabbi Mordechai - (an amazing story about the "Baal HaLevushim," similar to the one about Rabbi Matisyahu Charash - about guarding one's eyes)
His surname Yaffe comes from the word "yafeh" - (beautiful), and Rav Mordechai himself was a man of captivating appearance.
Once, Rabbi Mordechai's good looks almost played a cruel trick on him.
A beautiful non-Jewish woman became so enchanted by him that she did everything possible to seduce him.
When Rabbi Mordechai realized what was happening, he immediately resolved to repel her flattering entreaties, even at the cost of his own life. Behind his house was a canal filled with sewage. He immediately jumped into its foul-smelling waters. The smell from his clothes was so revolting that the woman at once withdrew from him.
The filth soaked through all 10 layers of clothing that he was wearing at the time. Of course, his garments were dirty and gave off a foul odor, but his neshama, his soul, and his moral character remained as pure as before. For his self-sacrifice in overcoming the yetzer hara, Ha-Shem granted him the ability to compose a 10-volume halachic treatise, which he called Levushim, garments, in memory of those 10 garments that had been soiled that day.
The 10 garments that saved his life became the 10 books meant to inspire the world of Torah scholars.
At that moment, Rabbi Mordechai raised his eyes to the Heavens and praised Ha-Shem in prayer:
"May 10 generations of my descendants have an unattractive appearance, so long as they do not face difficult trials because of their beauty."
"Ten generations, ten generations of descendants whose appearance was far from pleasant" - continued the father of Reb Yitzchakel, - "came to an end with my son. He is the 11th generation, and with him the beauty of our family line begins anew. The outer beauty and the inner, spiritual and moral beauty that dwelled in my holy grandfather have returned to my son," - said the father of Rabbi Yitzchak Krakowski of Lodz, the 10th generation from Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe.