Menachem Zemba
| Menachem Ziemba | |
|---|---|
Menachem Ziemba
|
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 September 1883 Praga, Poland |
| Died | 24 April 1943 (aged 59) Warsaw, General Government, Germany |
| Nationality | Polish |
Rabbi Menachem Ziemba (1883–1943) (Hebrew: מנחם זמבה) was a distinguished pre-World War II Rabbi, known as a Talmudic genius and prodigy. He was gunned down by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Rabbi Ziemba was born in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, in 1883. His father, Elazar, died while Menachem was still a young boy and the orphan was brought up by his grandfather Rabbi Avraham Ziemba. Rabbi Avraham had been a chassid of the Kotzker Rebbe and a student of the Chiddushei Harim, and was now a follower of the Sfas Emes of Gur.
Rabbi Ziemba was brought up in the Gerrer chasidus by his grandfather and remained a loyal chasid his entire life. Even years later when he was world-renowned as a Torah scholar, Posek and master of Hasidic thought, he still considered himself a simple Chasid of the rebbe of Ger. When he visited Ger, he was called by his first name and refused to sit at the Rebbe's top table, an honour reserved for visitors of note.
As Rabbi Ziemba grew up in Warsaw, he gained a reputation as a formidable Talmid Chacham (scholar) and dazzling genius. He maintained a unique correspondence with the Gaon of Rogatchov, a fiery individual not known for his tolerance of mediocrity, nor tolerance of younger students.
At the age of eighteen, Rabbi Ziemba married the daughter of a wealthy local merchant. He was thus able to learn Torah unhindered for the next twenty years, a time remembered by him as the happiest years of his life. His fame spread further afield, attracting the attention of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk and others. He once confided that he authored more than 10,000 pages of Torah novellae during this golden period.
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