הרב חיים הלברשטאם

Rav Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (c. 5557/1797–25 Nisan 5636/1876), known to all by his sefarim as the Divrei Chaim, was the rav of Sanz (Nowy Sácz) in Galicia and the founding Rebbe of the Sanz chasidic dynasty. Born in Tarnogród to a family that traced its descent from the Chacham Tzvi, he was drawn to chasidut in his youth and taken as a son-in-law by Rav Boruch Frenkel-Thumim, the Boruch Ta’am, whose daughter Rochel Feiga he married. He learned the ways of chasidut from the Chozeh of Lublin, Rav Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz and Rav Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov, and received semichah from Rav Moshe Yehoshua Heshel Orenstein.

He took the rabbanut of Sanz in 5588/1828 and soon began to lead as a Rebbe, and for some forty-six years the town became a center of chasidut to which thousands streamed. The leading rabbanim of the generation counted him among the foremost lomdim, poskim and mekubalim of his day, and she’eilot reached him from communities across the world. He was a champion of the poor, giving away all that came to his hand and founding institutions for their relief, and he served as the first honorary president of Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim. In psak he held firm to his rulings even when they stirred the chasidic world — among them his opposition to machine-baked matzot, which he held to be chametz gamur, and to machine-spun tzitzit.

His Torah is gathered in the sefarim called Divrei Chaim: responsa, above all on Yoreh De’ah, mikva’ot and niddah, a commentary on the Torah and the moadim, chiddushim on Bava Metzia, and a commentary on the Pesach Haggadah; his customs were collected in Darkei Chaim. He studied together with his brother-in-law Rav Yosef Babad, the Minchat Chinuch. Late in life he obtained permits to settle in Eretz Yisrael; the journey never came about, though he sent chasidim of his to dwell in Tzefas.

Most of his many sons and sons-in-law became rebbes in their own right — the best known his son Rav Yechezkel Shraga of Shinove — and his son Rav Aharon was appointed to succeed him in the rabbanut of Sanz. From his descendants came a wide array of courts, among them Sanz-Klausenberg, Sanz-Zmigrad, Gorlice and Bobov, whose first Rebbe, Rav Shlomo Halberstam, was his grandson. He was niftar in Sanz on 25 Nisan 5636/1876.