Rav Meir Dan Platzky

Early years

Rav Meir Dan Platzky zt"l, known across Poland as Rav Meir Dan and later as the Klei Chemdah after his sefer, was born in Kutno in 5627 (1866–1867). He grew up in the heart of Chassidic Poland, raised in the warmth of pure Chassidus to become a pillar of Torah and of education.

His father, Rav Chaim Yitzchok Platzky, was a scholar and devoted chassid. He was first a follower of Rav Chanoch Henich of Alexander and, after the Rebbe's passing, a close follower of the Sfas Emes of Ger. His mother, Gela, was one of the most righteous and best known women of Kutno. From the moment her son could understand, even before he entered cheder, she implanted in him a love of Torah and yiras Shomayim.

His father never had much money. He made a modest living as a clerk and trusted employee of wealthy Jews who owned forests in western Poland, and the family wandered from place to place, following the sites where trees were felled. His mother worried about the boy's learning, so she sold her jewelry and hired outstanding teachers who lived with the family in the villages. Years later, when Rav Meir Dan eulogized her, he spoke of her greatness of spirit and of the young woman who gave up her jewelry so that her son could have teachers of the highest caliber.

By the age of nine, even the best of these teachers had nothing more to teach him, and his parents sent him to Kalish, to the yeshiva of the Gaon Rav Chaim Eliezer Wachs, the rav of the city and author of Nefesh Chaya. Visitors to the rav's house wondered what so young a child was doing at the shiurim. Once Rav Wachs had examined him, he counted the boy among his finest talmidim, and he cared for him from then on. After a few years Rav Meir Dan moved to Sochachow, to the yeshiva of Rav Avrohom Bornsztain, the Avnei Nezer and first Sochatchover Rebbe, whom he considered his lifelong rebbe muvhak (primary Torah teacher). The shiurim there were so sharp and deep that even gifted older talmidim sometimes found them hard to follow, yet the young newcomer soon took his place among the elite.

When he was thirteen, his father made a bar mitzvah celebration in Kutno and invited the leaders of the city. Rav Meir Dan composed a discourse for the occasion, and its sharpness and depth astounded everyone who heard it. News of it reached the Rebbe of Sochachow, and when the young man returned to the yeshiva he was asked to repeat it. The Rebbe listened and said that one could argue with what he had said, but he had built a beautiful structure, and it would be a pity to tear it down when it might just as well stand.

Torah and leadership

In Dvart, a town full of scholars, sofrim (scribes and authors) and great chassidim, lived Rav Mordechai, a chassid, a learned and wealthy man and a man of good deeds. His wife, Sheina Reizel, was a righteous woman who had grown up in the home of her uncle, the Gaon Rav Chaim Auerbach, Av Beis Din of Linschitz (Leczyca). Two of their daughters had married scholars who became rabbanim: Rav Yosef, Av Beis Din of Kletcheva (Kleczew), and the Gaon Rav Menachem, Av Beis Din of Kozminka (Kozminek). For their youngest daughter, Tziril, Rav Mordechai sought an exceptional young man, and at the yeshiva of the Avnei Nezer in Sochachow he found Rav Meir Dan.

In 5642 (1882) Rav Meir Dan married Tziril; he was fifteen. His father-in-law spent generously on the dowry and gifts, bought him a large library and took care of all his needs. For the next ten years he lived in Dvart, supported by his in-laws and free to learn. In the introduction to Chemdas Yisroel he writes that he feels morally bound to open the sefer by mentioning, for blessing, his father-in-law, who loved Torah and its students, and his mother-in-law, who supported him for ten years while he learned and taught worthy talmidim.

His paternal grandfather, Rav Yisroel, was a gaon, a chassid and a man of many talents. He passed away in 5643 (1882–1883), when Rav Meir Dan was seventeen. On the day of his passing he called for his grandson, asked him to place a hand over his heart and made him swear to learn with all his heart and soul and to develop new and deep ideas in Torah. Rav Meir Dan never forgot this request, and in the introduction to the first volume of Chemdas Yisroel he explains that he named the sefer after his grandfather.

For a short time he learned alone in Dvart, but soon young men began to come to him, and he started to give shiurim. From then on there was always a yeshiva around him. Surrounded by love and devotion in his father-in-law's home, he gave himself to learning and teaching day and night, and the yeshiva grew famous in the surrounding area and beyond. His talmidim were deeply attached to their young gaon, whose name became known throughout the Torah world as one of the sharpest minds of his generation, a master of halachah and of understanding. In 1891 he became Rav of Dvart. He went through the Bavli and the Yerushalmi and the Rishonim and Acharonim with speed and diligence, and his sharpness never lessened the breadth of his knowledge, nor his breadth his sharpness. He later helped expose as a forgery the Yerushalmi on Kodshim that Shlomo Yehuda Friedlander claimed to have discovered, a man who also claimed to be a Sephardi named Shlomo Yehuda Algazi.

He approached Torah with fear and trembling, but also with love and heartfelt devotion. For him learning was never a pleasure but a holy task, one that calls on every part of the body and not only the mind, and he worked in the field of Torah with all his strength. He learned with a hunger, as if he had never learned before, and each day he set aside time to fill his heart with love of Torah.

Rav Meir Dan was a chassid in every fiber of his being. He had a permanent seat in the Ger beis medrash in Dvart, full of learned men and enthusiastic chassidim, young and old. His devotion to Chassidus was planted in him by his father and by his grandfather Rav Yisroel. From a young age he often visited the court of Rav Aryeh Leib of Ger, the Sfas Emes, and after the Sfas Emes passed away he accepted the authority of Rav Avrohom Mordechai of Ger. The Gerer Rebbes loved the young gaon, who had few equals in his generation, and every word and every request of the Rebbe was binding for him, something he would go through fire and water to fulfill. He saw Chassidus, led by a true tzaddik, as part of the obligation of every Jew in the later generations and as the safeguard against deviations in thought and action.

He explained that everyone needs real submission, and not only in the heart. Once, during a mission to America, a mitnagdic rav asked him why a gaon who had mastered every part of the Torah needed to travel so much and to submit so completely to a Rebbe. He answered with a teaching about thunder, recorded below.

In 5663 (1902–1903), at the age of thirty-six, Rav Meir Dan published Chemdas Yisroel, his work on the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvos. Leading rabbanim gave it warm approbations, among them his rebbe, the Avnei Nezer, the Gaon Rav Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk and the Gaon Rav Eliyahu Chaim Meisel of Lodz. They gave the author the loftiest titles and called him an awesome gaon and a prince of the Torah. When he printed the approbations, however, Rav Meir Dan removed every compliment aimed at himself and kept only the references to “the rav.”

Most of his day went to his holy work. He gave several shiurim daily to the talmidim of his yeshiva, yet he knew everything happening in Dvart. He was the address for every embittered soul and every trouble in the town and its surroundings, and he spared no effort to help anyone who asked. He felt responsible for the well-being and health of the poor and suffering, the widows and orphans, and he never stopped caring for the downtrodden.

In 1918 the rabbinate of Ostrow Mazowiecka fell vacant. Its rav, Rav Yosef Kalish of Amshinov, had been chosen to succeed his father, Rav Menachem, who had just passed away, as Rebbe and Av Beis Din of Amshinov. The community chose Rav Meir Dan as their rav and teacher. As always, he took no final step without consulting his Rebbe, Rav Avrohom Mordechai of Ger, who replied, “For a few years, why not?” Rav Meir Dan hesitated no longer and went to Ostrow Mazowiecka, where his reputation as a great gaon, a devoted rav and a courageous fighter went before him. As in Dvart, he at once took the lead in every communal effort. He stood at the gates like a father and protector, saw the rabbanus as a holy mission and neither feared anyone nor tolerated opposition to it.

As conditions in Poland settled, the question of organizing Torah Jewry rose again, and Rav Meir Dan was drawn into this work as one of the leaders of Agudas Yisroel. The founders faced a difficult problem, because a mass movement with branches and thousands of institutions could not exist without a budget. They therefore decided to send a high-level delegation to England and the United States. Rav Meir Dan was chosen to head it, and its members were the Gaon Rav Asher Lemel Spitzer, Av Beis Din of Kirchdorf, Rav Dr. Meir Hildesheimer of Berlin, Dr. Nathan Birnbaum and Rav Yosef Lev, who later served as a rav in London. Rav Yitzchok Meir Levin headed the delegation in England only.

Passenger records confirm that Rav Meir Dan sailed to America twice. He arrived in New York from Southampton on the S.S. Adriatic on May 27, 1921, traveling with Rav Yosef Yisroel Lev for a three-month visit financed by the Agudah organization. He arrived again from Cherbourg on the S.S. Mauretania on May 14, 1926. The history of Agudath Israel of America, The Struggle and the Splendor by Rav Moshe Sherer (1982), describes the 1921 delegation as coming to strengthen Torah loyalty and to organize an Agudah movement in America, led by the Ostrover Rav, one of the outstanding gaonim of Poland.

Everywhere the delegation was received with great honor, and rabbanim and Torah scholars stood in awe of the gaon. Yet it did not raise the sums it needed. Rav Meir Dan had a gentle and kind soul and was not skilled in the games of honors by which fundraising was done in America in those days. He did not know how to flatter people, least of all newly rich men who knew no Torah, had no fear of Heaven and lacked the charitable impulses he was used to.

On his return, Poland, newly independent after more than a century of domination by Russia, Germany and Austria, was shaken by the invasion of the Bolshevik Red Army, which pushed the Polish army back until it stood at the gates of Warsaw.

At its first convention in 5682 (1921–1922), attended by hundreds of rabbanim, the Association of Rabbis of Poland elected him chairman of its executive committee. He worked mainly on matters of halachah and refused to involve himself in efforts to improve the economic position of rabbanim, leaving that to others. He was also elected to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Greats) on the very day it was founded.

Rav Meir Dan took an active part in organizing Agudas Yisroel in Poland. He saw it as a serious force for strengthening the ramparts of religion, saving future generations and preventing anti-religious movements from taking over Jewish communal life. He therefore sharply rejected the wish of some rabbanim to appear politically unaffiliated. “At a time when full loyalty to the Torah has become a political party matter,” he asked, “how can a rav who fulfills his Torah mission see himself as unaffiliated?”

He also had his own view in the debate over who could join Agudas Yisroel. The question arose in Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, where separate Orthodox communities existed. Some held that only members of such communities could join, and some even forbade joining the general communities, which included secular and anti-religious Jews. Others held that Agudas Yisroel should include every Jew who kept the word of Hashem. After he returned from the mission to England and America, Rav Meir Dan tirelessly demanded that the gates be opened as widely as possible to draw in the masses, without being overly concerned with the fine points of their observance. Joining and taking part under the authority of the Torah leaders, he said, would bring a turning point in their lives. He voiced this view at every Agudah conference and at the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

Alongside Agudas Yisroel in Poland, Tzeirei Agudas Yisroel was founded, with clubs and libraries for religious youth. Many leading Rebbes and rabbanim opposed religious libraries on principle, since a religious young man, including a working one, should give every free hour to Torah and not to novels and empty stories that could poison the soul. The young activists found a champion in Rav Meir Dan, who saw the libraries as a need of the times.

In 5682 (1922) the national convention of Agudas Yisroel in Poland met in Warsaw, and Rav Meir Dan delivered a fiery speech, calling on the masses to sanctify the Name of Heaven by committing themselves to the cause. The thousands who attended applauded, and at the end a great cry of Shema Yisroel rose from their mouths. The scene moved him deeply. He was especially fond of that address and printed it in Klei Chemdah, in the section on Parshas Nitzavim.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Meir Dan published Klei Chemdah on the Torah, which quickly won the hearts of the Torah community in Poland and beyond. Leading scholars gave it approbations, among them the Gaon Rav Yosef Rosen, the Gaon Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk and the Gaon Rav Yosef Engel. It sold out quickly and made the author famous as one of the sharpest geonim. He also published the second volume of Chemdas Yisroel, which contained responsa, shiurim and mussar discourses he had given since becoming a rav.

These were only a small part of the thousands of responsa he sent to communities near and far, to hundreds of rabbanim and dayanim who turned to him with serious questions. He answered every inquirer quickly, precisely and clearly. He did not shy away from deciding difficult matters of halachah, although he sometimes wove other topics into his replies, wandering through Shas and the poskim as he clarified the law. He is also credited with Chemdas Shlomo on Orach Chaim.

Later years and passing

Through his decades in Dvart, where young men streamed to his yeshiva, and his years as rav of Ostrow Mazowiecka, Rav Meir Dan raised thousands of talmidim. As he approached sixty, he began to long for the days before the rabbanus, when all his time was free for learning and teaching. When he was asked to head the Mesivta, a yeshiva in Warsaw with hundreds of students, he agreed. He even consented to travel again to the United States to raise the money to enlarge the yeshiva, take in hundreds more students and secure its future. In 5686 (1926) he left for America and stayed for many months.

On his return he resigned as rav of Ostrow Mazowiecka, to the sorrow of the many townspeople who were bound to him with love and friendship. A spacious apartment was rented for him at 7 Marianska Street in Warsaw, and he began his new work, opening with shiurim on the Rambam's Laws of Kiddush Hashem. He hoped to contribute to Jewish and religious life in the capital, through Agudas Yisroel, the Association of Rabbis and other bodies. At first he refused to have a shul in his home and went to one of the many Ger shtieblach in Warsaw as one chassid among many. “From now on I am no longer a rav,” he said gratefully, “and am free from any obligation to daven in one particular place.”

He planned to expand the Mesivta and turn it into a center of Torah in Poland, and hundreds of sharp and excellent young men from all over Poland came to learn directly from the leading gaon of the generation. His joy did not last. Only a few months after he arrived in Warsaw, he fell ill with a sickness from which he never recovered, to the distress of his admirers, talmidim and friends.

Even on his sickbed he kept learning with enthusiasm and producing new Torah thoughts. The Rebbe Rav Yitzchok Zelig of Sokolow wrote in the Association of Rabbis' published collection of sermons, volume IX (5690, 1929–1930), that Rav Meir Dan wrote to him just days before his passing to ask him to pray for his recovery. He also enclosed a note clarifying the text of the Mechilta on Parshas Vayakhel. Rav Yitzchok Zelig sent a brief reply with words of Torah, knowing that Torah would lift his spirits, but it did not reach him before he went up to Heaven.

In his last days Rav Meir Dan wrote a will, saying that it might even add to his days. He asked his sons, the Gaon Rav Yisroel Nosson and the Gaon Rav Chanoch Henich, to publish his shiurim on the laws of Shabbos and his many Torah novellae. His pain grew from day to day, but his concentration never weakened until the last moment of his life.

On the sixth of Nissan 5688 (March 27, 1928), not quite sixty-two years old, the Gaon Rav Meir Dan departed on high. There was deep mourning, and many eulogies were delivered about him across the Jewish world.