Rav Meir Ashkenazi of Eisenstadt zt"l
הרב מאיר בן יצחק אשכנזי זצ"ל
Sivan 27 , 5504
Stories of Rav Meir Ashkenazi of Eisenstadt zt"l
Rav Meir was born to the Shach’s sister’s daughter; here is the legendary tale of how it happened:
In the year 5415, a war broke out and the Shach, his brother Yona and their younger sister fled Vilna, running for their lives. As they fled, they were separated and could no longer find one another. The Shach finally settled at the home of Rav Yitzchok Ashkenazi, one of the community leaders, and, as was the Shach’s custom, he stayed up late into the night studying Torah. As he studied he learned with a niggun, until he heard crying coming from one of the rooms. He approached and found a young girl sobbing hysterically. When he asked her what was wrong, she cried and explained that she had once had a beloved brother, a Talmid Chochom, who she remembered was a great Torah scholar and had learned with that very same niggun.
“During the war, as we fled, our father Rav Meir’s home in Vilna, we were separated and I never found him again. Hearing that niggun again left me heartbroken.”
Before she could continue, the Shach burst forth, “My long-lost sister!” And their happy reunion was even more joyous when her upcoming marriage to the recently widowed Rav Yitzchok, the parnas, was announced and the Shach blessed them with the berocha that their offspring should light up the world. It is generally accepted that the Ponim Meiros was the outcome of this berocha. (Luach HaHillula)
When Rav Meir married, he lived for ten years with his father-in-law supporting him completely with room and board. Perhaps the Ponim Meiros’s greatness in Torah would have remained hidden had not the following incident taken place:
As was unfortunately all too common, a blood libel landed a group of Jews in jail. They were imprisoned and threatened by execution by fire and would have died, if not for Rav Moshe Sokotchover, the Ponim Meiros’s father-in-law. He found favor with the nobility and bribed them to save the Jews. He succeeded in redeeming all twenty-four captives from certain death. The price, however, was heavy indeed. He had to sell all his worldly possessions and all his assets. Rav Moshe was left penniless and unable to support the Ponim Meiros. It was this episode that forced him into the rabbinate, where he served in Shidlowitz, moving eventually to Worms and finally to Eisenstadt, where he served as Rav until his final days. (Luach HaHillula)
In his sefer Kosnos Ohr, on Parshas Shemini, he describes an incident that occurred to him on Yom Kippur before Kol Nidrei, when somehow it was revealed to him that he must run for his life – and so he fled then and there – and none too soon, as the authorities came searching for him – but what a mazal – he was gone!
Apparently, some unscrupulous individuals had rebelled against the government and because some of their business dealings and disputes required the Bais Din to resolve these activities, they falsely implicated the Rav, and the Ponim Meiros stood accused of illegal activities. The libel against him was strong enough for them to seek his arrest and Boruch Hashem he was warned from Shomayim so that he fled on Yom Kippur. He ran back to Shidlowitz where he had served previously and remained in exile for some three years before he was finally cleared to come back home to Eisenstadt with honor. (Luach HaHillula)