הרב צדוק הכהן מלובלין

Rav Tzadok HaKohen Rabinowitz of Lublin (22 Shevat 5583/1823–9 Elul 5660/1900) was a gaon in nigleh and nistar who became one of the great masters of chasidut. Born in Kreuzburg, today in Latvia, to the town’s rav, Rav Yaakov HaKohen, of a family of Lithuanian rabbanim, his mother descended from the Shelah. Orphaned of his father at six, he grew up with his uncle Rav Yosef HaKohen Rabinowitz, rav of Krynki and author of Kapot Zahav, and became known as the iluy of Krynki — a teshuvah addressed to him in his youth appears in the Shoel U’Meishiv of Rav Yosef Shaul Natansohn.

Raised among the misnagdim, his search brought him to Izhbitza, to Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner, author of the Mei HaShiloach, whose talmid he became; in Lublin he stood close to Rav Yehuda Leib Eiger, grandson of Rav Akiva Eiger. For most of his life he refused every rabbanut and lived in poverty from a small shop of used clothing that his wife kept, giving his days wholly to learning; it is told that he would not taste food each day until he had finished a masechta of the Bavli and made its siyum. Only on the petirah of Rav Yehuda Leib Eiger in 5648/1888 did he yield to the chasidim of Lublin and accept their leadership. The torot he then began to say on Shabbat, Yom Tov, and Rosh Chodesh were written down by his talmidim and became the five volumes of Pri Tzadik on the Chumash and the moadim. The salary the kehillah paid him he refused to use for himself, putting it all into a great Torah library rich in manuscripts, in whose dating and identification he was an expert sought out by talmidei chachamim; his house and library were burned in the Shoah.

He wrote across the whole breadth of Torah: Tzidkat HaTzadik; Resisei Lailah, with its kuntres Divrei Chalomot, divrei Torah revealed to him in dreams; Machshavot Charutz; Takanat HaShavin on the mitzvah of teshuvah; Divrei Sofrim; Poked Akarim; Yisrael Kedoshim; Otzar HaMelech on the Rambam; and the responsa Tiferet Tzvi; in his youth he also wrote on astronomy, geometry, and algebra. At the center of his thought stands Torah shebe’al peh: given with the Torah from the beginning, it unfolds through the chachamim of every generation according to that generation’s needs.

He was niftar in Lublin on 9 Elul 5660/1900, leaving no children. Among his last talmidim was Rav Michael Mokotovsky, whose son was the author Eliyahu Kitov; his own sefarim continue to appear in new, annotated editions in our generation.