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Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshis'cha: His Life and Teachings

by H. M. Rabinovits

169 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-1014; ISBN 1-4251-2890-4; US$17.58, C$20.22, EUR13.71, £9.09

Rabbi Simcha of Pshis'cha describes the life and times of a unique hasidic tsadik of the eighteenth century. It provides a glimpse into his teachings through his essays and his creative and inspiring parables.

About the Book

Translated from the Hebrew, this book details the life, times, and teachings of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshis'cha (1765-1827). He lived during a time of great political instability and upheaval in Polan: the three partitions of Poland; the 1808 invasion of Napoleon's army' and the weakening of central government control. All these factors, directly and indirectly, adversely affected the lives of Polish Jewry.

Rabbi Simcha Bunim was a remarkably independent-minded, worldly hasidic master. Unlike the majority of the Polish-Jewish population, he spend time in Western Europe, mastered German and Italian, and wore European clothing even when in the courts of other tsadikim. He earned a living as a pharmacist, which was unheard of among the hasidim of that time. Rabbi Simcha Bunim's emphasis on individual responsibility for the perfection of one's character traits and his teaching of personal redemption hugely challenged and threatened populist hasidism. This conflict culminated in the famous confrontation which occurred at the wedding of a grandchild of Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta, in Ostila.

The depth and pruity of Rabbi Simcha Bunim's soul becomes apparent in his essays and parables. As his intelligence, wit, and devotion emerge, out relationship with him deepens and we begin to feel that we know him more intimately. The hasidic tales indicate his depth of imagination and his inderstanding of the human dilemma. Through some of his disciples, such as Rabbi Menachem Mendle of Kotsk, Rabbi Yitschak Meir of Ger, Rabbi Hanoc of Alexander, and Rabbi Moreachai Yosef of Izbitsa, his legacy endures to this very day.

About the Author

Dr. H. M. Rabinovits was born in Uniyov, Poland in 1908. He came from a long line of rabbis and scribes, tracing his lineage back to Rabbi Shlomo HaCohen, otherwise known as 'Tiferet Shlomo', the founder of the Radomsk chasidim. He studied in the yeshiva Torat Chayim and was ordained as a rabbi in 1931.

In 1934, he emigrated to Palestine. While working as an upholsterer in Jerusalem, he enrolled in a teachers college and became a teacher in the city of Safed, a city which was predominatingly mystical and spiritual. Dr. Rabinovits taught at Bar Ilan University. Later, he taught at Tel Aviv University and eventually became head of the Department of Talmud until he retired in 1977. A life-long learner, at the age of 50, Dr. Rabinovits received his doctorate from Hebrew University on Midrashim of the Halacha and Midrashim of Agada in the Piyyutim of Yannai.

In 1932, at the age of 24, he published his first book on the Yehudi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yitschak Yaacov of Pshis'cha. He subsequently wrote Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshis'cha, and The Magid of Kosnets. He received the esteemed Bialik Prize for Jewish Thought for his great book, The Machzor of the Piyyutim of Yannai for Torah and the Holidays. Dr. Rabinovits also published numerous articles in various newspapers, journals, and books. He was a scholar who maintained a critical and objective approach to his research. However, his love of early chasidism in Poland permeates every page of his writings and touches the soul of the reader.