הרב משה טייטלבוים

Rav Moshe Teitelbaum of Ujhely (5519/1758 – 28 Tammuz 5601/1841), known as the Yismach Moshe after his sefer, was rav of the kehillah of Ujhely in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, and one of the men who brought Chasidut into Hungary. He was born in Przemyśl in Galicia to Rav Tzvi Hirsch and Chana, and at thirteen he married Chaya Sara, daughter of Rav Nisan of Przemyśl. He learned by his father’s brother Rav Yosef, rav of Kolbasov, and by his mother’s brother Rav Aryeh Yehuda HaLevi of Strizov, author of Drishat Aryeh. In 5544/1784, at twenty-five, he was appointed rav of Shinova, and in 5568/1808 he was received as rav and av beit din of Ujhely, where thousands upon thousands came to him.

He had at first stood against the chasidic movement. It was his son-in-law Rav Aryeh Leib Lipschitz, author of Aryeh D’Bei Ilai and a talmid of the Chozeh of Lublin, who drew him close, and he became a leading talmid of the Chozeh; he received also from the Maggid of Kozhnitz, from Rav Menachem Mendel of Rimanov and from the Ohev Yisrael of Apta. He gave out kameot in great number, and Rav Naftali of Ropshitz objected that according to the Arizal one may not handle the holy Names; after letters between them and a mofet from the Yismach Moshe, Rav Naftali withdrew the objection. In 1822 the authorities suspected him of supplying amulets to Jewish prisoners to help them escape; he answered that they stood in place of a mezuzah, to guard the one who carried them.

Among his talmidim were Rav Yoel Ashkenazi, av beit din of Zlotchov and author of Mlo HaRo’im; Rav Menachem Mendel Panet of Dej; and Rav Tzvi Hirsch Friedman of Liska, author of Ach Pri Tevuah. He wrote Yismach Moshe on the Torah and Nach, Tefillah LeMoshe on Tehillim, the responsa Heishiv Moshe, and Yayin HaRekach on Pirkei Avot. Much of the commentary on Tehillim he wrote on the backs of the kvitlach handed him by those who came for a berachah; the sheets passed through the hands of chasidic rebbes until they were edited and printed in Cracow in 1880.

He spoke of three earlier gilgulim (reincarnations) of his own: in the first he had been a sheep in the flock of Yaakov Avinu, in the second he lived in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, and the third he would not name out of humility — his chasidim, asking another rebbe, were told it was Yirmiyahu HaNavi. In his last years he longed so for the coming of Mashiach and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash that he wore his Shabbat clothing the whole week through, waiting. He was niftar on 28 Tammuz 5601 and was buried in Sátoraljaújhely; his son Rav Elazar Nisan, rav in Drohobych, carried the line from which the rebbes of Sighet and then Satmar came, and a grandson who survived the churban built the Kiryat Yismach Moshe neighborhood in Ganei Tikva.