Joseph Meir Weiss

Joseph Meir Weiss (Weisz) (Hebrew: יוסף מאיר ווייס‎‎), also known as the "Imrei Yosef" after his major work, (March 15, 1838 – May 26, 1909) was a Hungarian rabbi and founder of the Spinka Hasidic dynasty.

Weiss was born in Munkacz, Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine). His father, Rabbi Samuel Zevi (Shmuel Tzvi) Weiss, was Av Beit Din of Munkacz, and his mother was the daughter of Tzvi Hirsch of Drohobycz, Hungary (now Drohobych, Ukraine). Weiss attended the yeshiva of Rabbi Meir Eisenstaedter in Ungvar, Hungary (now Uzhhorod, Ukraine).

When Meir Eisenstaedter died in 1852, Weiss continued his studies under Meir's son, Rabbi Menachem Eisenstaedter. Weiss then studied at Rabbi Shmuel Smelke Klein of Hust, Hungary (now Khust, Ukraine), author of Tzeror HaChaim. His foremost mentor of Hasidism was Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Eichenstein of Ziditshov. Eichenstein is to have said "I don't know why [Weiss] continues to visit us...He certainly does not need to acquire the fear of God from me." Weiss was also influenced by Rabbis Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, Sholom Rokeach of Belz, and Menachem Mendel Hager, the first Rebbe of Vizhnitz.

In 1854, when Weiss was 16, his mother died. That year, he married the daughter of Mordechai of Borşa (now Romania), but she died three years later. Weiss married again and had two daughters, but his second wife died in 1868. In 1870, he married Perl, the daughter of Ezra Yaakov Basch of Săpânța (Yiddish: Spinka), Maramureş, Romania, near the Hungarian border.

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