הרב יעקב יחזקאל גרינוואלד

Rav Yaakov Yechezkel (Yechezkiya) Greenwald (5642/1882 – 2 Adar 5701/1941), known by his sefer Vayaged Yaakov, was rav of the Etz Chaim kehillah in Papa, Hungary, and rosh yeshiva there, and the forerunner of the Pupa chasidic dynasty. He was born in Csorna to Rav Moshe Greenwald, author of Arugat HaBosem and rav and rosh yeshiva of Chust, and learned under his father as his closest talmid. In 5660/1900 he married a daughter of his relative Rav Yisrael Menachem Braun, av beit din of Berzovitz.

His rabbanut began in 5666/1906 in Likov. In 5672/1912 he was appointed rav of Tzelem, taking the place of his uncle Rav Eliezer David Greenwald, author of Keren LeDavid, who moved on to another kehillah. In 5684/1924 he went to serve as rav of Hunyad and stood at the head of a yeshiva in that city, and in 5689/1929 he was called to Papa. The yeshiva he built there soon numbered some three hundred bachurim and was counted among the largest and most important in Hungary. He was a Belzer chasid and sent many of his talmidim to Belz.

He left Vayaged Yaakov on the Torah and the moadim, the responsa Mishpatecha LeYaakov, Zechut Avot on Masechet Avot, Agudat Ezov on the Haggadah shel Pesach, and Berachah v’Tehillah on Tehillim. Among his talmidim were Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Neuman, rav of the Belz kehillah in Montreal, Rav Yitzchak Shlomo Unger, rosh yeshivat Chug Chatam Sofer, and Shlomo Lorincz, later a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael. He was niftar in 5701/1941 and buried in the Jewish cemetery in Papa, and his son Rav Yosef Greenwald, the Vayechi Yosef, filled his place as rav of the Etz Chaim kehillah and as rosh yeshiva.