Rav Tzvi Hirsch Horowitz of Chortkov
A beloved talmid of the Baal Shem Tov and father of Rav Shmelka of Nikolsburg and the Haflaah, whose kever in Chortkov is a famed segulah.
Biography
Yichus and family
Rav Tzvi Hirsch HaLevi Horowitz of Chortkov zy"a, known as Rav Hirshele Tshortkover, came from one of the great families of Jewish lineage. Sefer Shemen HaTov (vol. 2, #106) cites the Baal Shem Tov as saying that three families have a flawless yichus that can be traced generation after generation: the Margolios, Shapira and Horowitz families. The Baal Shem Tov had a beloved talmid from each: Rav Meir Margolios, author of Meir Nesivim; Rav Pinchos Shapira of Koretz, author of Imrei Pinchos; and Rav Tzvi Hirsch HaLevi Horowitz of Tshortkov, father of the famed Rav Shmelka of Nikolsburg and of Rav Pinchos of Frankfurt, author of the Haflaah.
Another tradition holds that the three families the Baal Shem Tov favoured were the Rappaport family of Kohanim, the Horowitz family of Leviim and the Shapira family of Yisraelim (Eden Tzion, p. 259). A third tradition, cited in the name of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz in Pischa Zeira of Tzva Rav by Michelzohn (p. 8), names the family of the Chacham Tzvi, the family of Rav Meir HaLevi Horowitz of Tiktin, Rav Shmelka's paternal grandfather, and the Baal Shem Tov's own family.
Rav Hirshele married Malka, the daughter of Rav Mordechai, Av Beis Din of Lutzk. She used to joke, "We have two sons. One of them never bentshes Birkas HaMazon, and the other never says Krias Shema al HaMitah." Rav Pinchos was always fasting and never ate full meals, while Rav Shmelka never went to bed; he would fall asleep from exhaustion over his learning (Ohel Yitzchok, p. 77).
Once her sons came to visit her out of respect, and she sent a messenger telling them to turn back. She did not wish to receive honour in this passing world, she said; she preferred to keep the honour of a mother for the world of truth, the eternal Shabbos, where she would greet her sons and bask in their honour (Ohel Yitzchok 75; Shemen HaTov 108, 112).
His second wife was a sister of Rav Chaim HaKohen Rappaport (Shemen HaTov II 108).
Torah and leadership
Rav Hirshele was a colleague of such giants as Rav Yechezkel Landau of Prague, author of the Noda BeYehuda; Rav Chaim Sanzer of Brody; and Rav Chaim HaKohen Rappaport, Av Beis Din of Lwow.
His kloiz (small beis medrash) in Tshortkov was unique, with its own customs, which Rav Hirshele guarded fiercely. The nusach of tefillah was Ashkenaz, and no one dared change it, even after his passing, because of what befell those who tried.
Only Rav Hirshele's talmidim were allowed to daven there until Baruch She'amar; after that, anyone could join. But when davening ended, no one else could stay. The talmidim sat on the floor in a circle, and Rav Hirshele stood in the centre and taught them the mysteries and secrets of the Torah.
He also established a special tefillah to be said responsively before the blowing of the shofar.
The most unusual custom was his rule that nothing in the beis medrash could ever be changed, not even to repair or renovate it. The shul was therefore never repaired. When needed, support beams were added inside and buttress walls built outside to keep the old walls from collapsing, while the building slowly sank into the ground up to the height of its windows. It remained standing and in use until the war years of the Holocaust.
Teachings and seforim
His Torah is often cited by his son Rav Pinchos in Sefer HaFlaah and by his son Rav Shmelka in Divrei Shmuel.
Later years and passing
Rav Hirshele passed away on 15 Cheshvan 5514 and was laid to rest in Tshortkov.
Chassidim relate that Rav Mordechai of Chernobyl sent the Jews of the city to daven at his kever to end a plague that had struck, and that Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev saw his kever as the source of a great light in the beis hachaim, the cemetery (Shemen HaTov II 96, 119).
Legacy
His sons were Rav (Menachem?) Nachum HaLevi, Av Beis Din of Praskuv; his two famous sons, the Rebbe Reb Shmelka Horowitz of Nikolsburg and Rav Pinchos HaLevi Horowitz of Frankfurt, author of the Haflaah; Yehoshua Heschel, who died at the age of fifteen on 7 Nissan 5491; and Rav Avrohom HaLevi.
His daughters were Eidel, wife of Rav Moshe Yehoshua, Av Beis Din of Shterim; Leah, whose husband (his name is not recorded) was the father of Rav Simcha of Ludmir; a daughter who married Rav Yechiel Michel Halperin of Sharigrod; and Miriam, whose husband was of Mogilev in Podolia, and who was the grandmother of Rav Shmuel HaKohen Burstein, author of Minchas Shabbos and Minchas Yom Tov.
Stories
The Nusach of the Kloiz
Rav Yisroel, son of Rav Dovid Moshe of Tshortkov, once related that Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev came to Tshortkov several years after Rav Hirshele had passed away. During his visit he davened in Rav Hirshele's kloiz, and as a chassid he davened nusach Sefard, against the established custom of the shul.
No sooner had the Kedushas Levi, famous for his fiery tefillos, begun to daven nusach Sefard than he was seized by a deep sleep. In a vision, the Rav of the kloiz himself, Rav Hirshele, appeared to him and rebuked him for switching from nusach Ashkenaz to Sefard. "How dare you?" he said. "What gives you the right to change from nusach Ashkenaz in this place? I toiled and struggled greatly until I succeeded in forging a path ascending heavenward through nusach Ashkenaz." With that the vision ended, the Berditchever awoke, and he promptly switched back to nusach Ashkenaz.
"Do you see?" Rav Yisroel of Tshortkov concluded. "We all know how passionate and moving the holy Berditchever's tefillos were. Yet Rav Hirshele was so great that he could bring a sleep-like trance even upon the Kedushas Levi, to make him return to the right nusach."
On another occasion, years after Rav Hirshele's passing, someone tried to replace Bameh Madlikin on Friday night with Kegavna, as in nusach Sefard. That night a fire broke out. It consumed the amud where the chazzan davened and the floor he had stood on, up to the aron hakodesh, where it stopped. Needless to say, they went back to Bameh Madlikin. Even many years later, when the worshippers did daven nusach Sefard, they kept saying Bameh Madlikin, so that there would not be another fire.
The Segulah of His Kever
It is told that Rav Hirshele promised that if a fire ever broke out, the people should hurry to daven at his kever, and the fire would stop and spread no further than three buildings. And so it was: whenever a fire broke out in Tshortkov, they davened at his kever, and the fire miraculously died down (Shemen HaTov 92, 115).
Before his passing, Rav Hirshele also promised that any of his descendants who came to daven at his kever would be answered. Some say the promise was for five generations, others say ten, and still others say for all generations to come. His kever is well established as a tried and tested segulah for having tefillos answered.
Rav Shmuel Shmelka Horowitz of Sanik, author of Semichas Moshe, testified that he was once paralysed with pain in his foot. No doctor could help, and they had given up hope. Rav Tzvi Hirsch of Rymanov advised him to send a shaliach (messenger) especially to daven at Rav Hirshele's kever. As soon as the shaliach arrived and prayed there, he began to heal, and he recovered completely.
In the introduction to Minchas Yom Tov, Rav Shmuel of Shitava, also a descendant, relates that someone had been sick for nine months. They sent a special shaliach to daven at Rav Hirshele's kever, and the sick person was healed at once.
Rav Pinchos HaLevi Horowitz of Magrov, Teveria, related that he once had a wound on his cheek. He travelled with his mother to Rav Sholom of Belz, and as soon as she told him of Rav Hirshele's promise, he told her to travel immediately to Tshortkov. They did so, and as soon as he returned home he was healed.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: The Baal Shem Tov
Children: Rav Shmelka Horowitz of Nikolsburg, Rav Pinchos HaLevi Horowitz of Frankfurt, author of Haflaah, Rav (Menachem?) Nachum HaLevi, Av Beis Din of Praskuv, Rav Avrohom HaLevi, Yehoshua Heschel (died at age fifteen), Eidel, wife of Rav Moshe Yehoshua, Av Beis Din of Shterim, Leah, whose husband (name not recorded) was the father of Rav Simcha of Ludmir, A daughter, wife of Rav Yechiel Michel Halperin of Sharigrod, Miriam, whose husband was of Mogilev, Podolia; grandmother of Rav Shmuel HaKohen Burstein (Minchas Shabbos, Minchas Yom Tov)
Also on 15 Cheshvan
All hilulos on 15 Cheshvan ›Historical sources
- Shemen HaTov
- Ohel Yitzchok
- Eden Tzion
- Pischa Zeira of Tzva Rav (Michelzohn)
- Sefer Tshortkov