Rav Ezriel Hildesheimer zt"l
הרב עזריאל בן לייב הילדשיימר זצ"ל
Tammuz 4 , 5659
Rav Ezriel Hildesheimer zt"l
Rav Azriel Hildesheimer was born on 7 Sivan, the second day of Shavuos 5580/1820, in Halberstadt. He was the son of Rav Yehuda Hildesheimer, native of Hildesheim, a small town near Hanover.
As a bachur, he learned in the Yeshiva of Rav Yaakov Ettlinger, the Aruch LaNer, in Altona. He was considered his prize pupil.
At the age of thirty-one, in 5611/1851, he became Rav of Eisenstadt, Hungary (now in Austria), the principle city of the Seven Kehillos.
Rav Azriel also established a Yeshiva. It began with six bachurim; by 5628/1868 there were 128 — including one from the United States.
In 5621/1861, the Ksav Sofer offered Rav Azriel the position of Second Rav in Pressburg, but this never came to fruition.
In Berlin, at that time, the Orthodox community consisted of about two hundred families. Dissatisfied with the local Rav, they offered Rav Azriel the position, and he began to serve as Rav there in 5629/1869. He soon established a religious school and a Yeshiva, which thirty former talmidim joined. Rav Azriel thus became the intellectual founder and leader of the community Adass Yisroel.
Rav Azriel was one of the leaders of the war against the Reform movement. His policy of no compromise widened the gap between the Reform and the Orthodox Jews of Germany. He aimed at increasing the distance between authentic Yiddishkeit and those who wished to destroy it.
Rav Azriel had an unusual capacity for work; and his great learning was joined to practical administrative ability. He was financially independent, and never accepted remuneration for his rabbinical activity. He was frequently engaged in philanthropic activities connected with his own congregation, but additionally, in his vast Ahavas Yisroel, no labor was too great and no journey too long for him, in the service of the poor and needy in Germany, Austria, Russia, and even in Abyssinia and Persia.
Rav Azriel also took a special interest in the welfare of the Jews of Eretz Yisroel, then Palestine. In 5620/1860, when the missionary society of Palestine provided seventy free dwellings for homeless Jews, Rav Azriel himself built houses in Yerushalayim for free use by the poor.
Rav Azriel was niftar in Berlin on 4 Tammuz 5659/1899 at the age of seventy-nine. His kever is preserved in the cemetery of the Orthodox congregation Adass Yisroel in Berlin.
Some of his chiddushim have been published under the name Chiddushei Rav Azriel on Shas; in addition to She’eilos U’Teshuvos Rav Azriel.
Zecher tzaddik livrachah.
www.hamodia.com/features/day-history-4-tammuzjuly-2/