Rav Meir Horowitz zt"l
הרב מאיר בן אליעזר הורוויץ זצ"ל
Tammuz 8 , 5637
Rav Meir Horowitz zt"l
Author of Imrei Noam
Son of Rav Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov
Grandson of Rav Naphtali Tzvi of Ropshitz
Born in Rova Ruska around 1819
He married the daughter of Rav Kalman Pitzles, a dayan and one of the wealthiest Jews of Krakow.
Rav Meir received the Chassidic tradition from his father and his uncle Rav Asher Yeshaya of Ropshitz, as well as from Rav Hirsch MeShares of Rymanow.
He was already renowned as a gadol b’Torah even in his younger years and he exchanged shu”t and responsa in halacha with other gadolim of that era such as Rav Yosef Shaul Natanson, Rav Chaim of Sanz, and Rav Shlomo Kluger.
He was appointed Rav of Dzhikov during his father’s lifetime, and from תרכא, he was appointed as rebbe to succeed his father.
He greatly fortified and expanded the Chassidus that he inherited, and his followers soon numbered in the thousands. He built a grand and beautiful beis medrash in Dzhikov along with a mikvah, lodgings for guests, and a house with a garden.
He was remembered for his erudition and wisdom while he kept his inner personality hidden from view, much like his grandfather before him.
He was a mechutan with the Divrei Chaim of Sanz three times.
He passed away on 8 Tammuz תרלז תרלח 1877/1878 in Carlsbad while humming the tune to Selichos: “HeNeshama Lach ve’ha’guf pa’alach!” He was laid to rest in Dzhikov. Chassidim related that that erev Shabbos, towards evening, the sun hesitated from setting as it did miraculously in Givon.
That year when he had played dreidel on Chanukah with his children, his dreidel kept falling on the letter Nun. After this happened three times, he stopped playing. No one knew why the rebbe was so sad after the game. After he passed away that year, they understand retroactively that Nun stood for Niftar.
He authored the sefer, Imrei Noam on the Torah and Moadim as well as a shu”t also named Imrei Noam.
Stories of Rav Meir Horowitz zt"l
Once, when the Imrei Noam was only six, his father brought him before the heilige Ropshitzer Rav, who asked him for the reason we eat kugel on Shabbos. In the blink of an eye, the bright young lad answered that Kugel stands for the first letters of the pasuk Vehu kezera gad lovon (Shemos 16:31) – vov, kaf, gimmel and lamed – the same letters as Kugel. We eat Kugel to remember the Mon (Shulchon Aruch Orach Chaim, Hilchos Shabbos).
When he was eleven, his father took him to the Ziditchover Rebbe, the Ateres Tzvi, and he sat beside his father during the tisch. After the Rebbe said Torah, the Ateres Tzvi turned to the lad and said, “He grabs the words of Torah from my mouth as I say them!” Rav Yitzchok Stutchiner interpreted Rav Hirschele Ziditchover’s words to mean that when the Imrei Noam grew up he too would say Torah in a similar style and manner to the Ziditchover.(HillulaKaddisha p. 174)
According to some traditions, the way the Imrei Noam’s shidduch evolved between himself and Rebbetzin Devora, the daughter of Rav Kalonymous Kalman Reinhold Pitzales, was as follows:
There was once a severe shortage of esrogim and the heilige Ropshitzer had been unable to procure one. A wealthy merchant woman from the Pitzales family heard about this, sold all her property and wealth and managed to procure an esrog for that princely sum, which left her penniless. Seeing no other way to get it to the Tzaddik before Yom Tov, she sent it via express mail by train and instructed the postman that when the train arrived at the station he was to have the conductor anounce their arrival by tooting the steam engine’s horn.
That Sukkos the Ropshitzer had no esrog. The Tzaddik resigned himself that the following day, Yom Tov morning, he would recite Hallel without an esrog. However, during the Rebbe’s tisch, the sound of a steam engine’s tooting horn was overheard. “Aha! An esrog!!” exclaimed the Rebbe – and sure enough, that Yom Tov the Tzaddik bensched besimcha rabba on an esrog. Seeing who had sent this prize esrog to him, the Ropshitzer declared, “Write down after Yom Tov that one day our descendants shall marry one another!” And so it was! (In the name of Rav Yitzchok Stutchiner, HaChochma Me’ayin p. 105)