הרב חיים טירר מטשרנוביץ

Rabbi Chaim ben Rabbi Shlomo Tirer (c. 5500/1740 – 27 Kislev 5578/1817) was among the great figures of the chassidic movement and the author of well-known chassidic sefarim. He is called Rabbi Chaim of Czernowitz, or the Czernovitzer, after the city where he served, and is known also by the name of his sefer Be’er Mayim Chaim. He was born in a village in the region of Buczacz in Galicia; his father Shlomo was a chassid of the tzaddik of Horodenka. He was a talmid of Rabbi Yechiel Michel, the Maggid of Zlotshov, and of the Maggid of Mezritch, both of them talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov.

He served as av beit din in a number of cities — Czernowitz, Mogilev, Botosani, Kishinev and the region of Bukovina, where among other things he founded the beit knesset Gemilut Chasadim in Suceava. In 5540 he was appointed rav of Kripetz, and from 5542 served as rav of Czernowitz. He worked to obtain the agreement of the Austrian authorities to the return of the Jews who had been expelled from Vienna.

In 5565/1805, when Bukovina was annexed by the Austrian empire and after he came into conflict with the authorities, he left his position in Czernowitz in order to go up to Eretz Yisrael; having crossed the border into Moldavia, however, he served as rav in Botosani and afterwards in Kishinev, and reached Eretz Yisrael only in 5573/1813, settling in Tzfat. There he contended against laws that harmed the Jews and against the practice of davening outside the beit knesset. He is buried in the old cemetery of Tzfat, in the cave called after his sefer, and his matzevah records him as Rabbi Chaim son of the chassid Rabbi Shlomo of Botosani.

His sefarim are Sidduro shel Shabbat, discourses on matters of Shabbat together with teshuvot, printed at Mogilev in 5573; Shaar HaTefillah on tefillah, printed at Botosani in 5588; Be’er Mayim Chaim on the Torah, by way of pardes, printed at Czernowitz; and Eretz HaChaim in two parts, the first on Nevi’im and Ketuvim and Megillat Esther, the second on the halachot and aggadot of masechet Berachot. Streets in Rechovot, in the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak and in Bayit Vegan in Yerushalayim carry the name of his best-known sefer.