הרב אברהם בורנשטיין

Rav Avraham Bornstein of Sochatchov (Cheshvan 5599/1838–11 Adar I 5670/1910), the Avnei Nezer, was the founder and first Rebbe of Sochatchov and one of the greatest poskim of his era. Born in Bendin in Poland to Rav Zev Nachum Bornstein, author of Agudat Eizov and a chasid of Kotzk, he descended from the Rema and the Shach. His father taught him the darchei hapilpul, and by his own testimony in the hakdamah to Eglei Tal he was writing chiddushim at ten. At fourteen, in 5613/1853, he married Sara Tzina, daughter of Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, and lived in his father-in-law’s house; the Kotzker was his rebbi muvhak — even in the years of the Rebbe’s seclusion his door stood open to the young iluy, from whom he asked chiddushei Torah every day. After the Kotzker’s petirah he followed the Chidushei HaRim of Ger, and after him Rav Chanoch Henach of Alexander.

In 5623/1863 he became rav of Parczew, and in 5627/1867 of Krushnevitz, where he founded a yeshiva — apparently the first chasidic yeshiva — and learned with its talmidim eight hours a day; from his beit midrash came Rav Yoav Yehoshua Weingarten, the Chelkat Yoav, Rav Meir Dan Plotzki, the Kli Chemdah, and Rav Aryeh Tzvi Frumer. When Rav Chanoch Henach was niftar in 5630/1870 he agreed to serve as rebbe on one condition: that his sedarim and shiurim never be interrupted — and he received at his court only bnei Torah of substance. In 5636/1876 he moved to the rabbanut of Nasielsk, and in 5643/1883 to Sochatchov, from which his chasidut took its name.

She’eilot streamed to him from rabbanim across Europe. His derech in psak was fixed: first the sugya in the gemara to its depth, then the Rishonim upon it, and only then the ruling — and in his humility he wrote in places that his own rulings should not be leaned upon by themselves, save where a second posek had come to the same conclusion. He turned his heart also to Eretz Yisrael: in 5651/1891 a delegation headed by his son Rav Shmuel went up to buy land for a moshavah of chasidim near Rosh Pinah and Yesod HaMaalah, a plan halted by decree of the Turkish sultan.

His Eglei Tal on the thirty-nine melachot of Shabbat appeared in 5665/1905; its hakdamah, on learning Torah with simchah and whether one may delight in the mitzvah of talmud Torah, became a classic of the Torah world. His teshuvot on all four chelkei Shulchan Aruch were printed after his petirah in seven volumes as She’eilot uTeshuvot Avnei Nezer, arranged by his only son Rav Shmuel, the Shem Mishmuel, who succeeded him as Rebbe. He was niftar on 11 Adar I 5670/1910 and was buried in an ohel in Sochatchov, where his son was later brought to rest beside him; the ohel, razed in the churban of Polish Jewry, was found and rebuilt in 1993, and the yeshiva Avnei Nezer DeSochatchov learns in Yerushalayim in his name.