Moshe Mordechai Epstein
| Moshe Mordechai Epstein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 7, 1866 (20 Adar, 5626 Anno Mundi) Bakst, Lithuania |
| Died | November 28, 1933 (aged 67) (10 Kislev 5694 Anno Mundi) Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel) |
| Education | Volozhin yeshiva |
| Spouse(s) | Menucha Frank |
| Parent(s) | Tzvi Chaim and Baila Chana Epstein |
Moshe Mordechai Epstein (1866-1933) was rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century. He is also one of the founders of the city of Hadera.
Rabbi Epstein was born in the town of Bakst, in the Vilna district of Lithuania, on the 20th of Adar, 5626 (1866), to Rabbi Tzvi Chaim and Baila Chana Epstein. His father, who served as the rabbi of Bakst, had been affectionately referred to during his days in the Volozhin yeshiva as "the Black Genius". Little Moshe Mordechai's genius was detected from a very early age and he was called the Illuj from Bakst. The child prodigy began studying in the Volozhin yeshiva at the age of 16, under the guidance of the legendary Torah giant Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. There, he met his brother-in-law-to-be, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, and, in 1889, married Menucha Frank, the eldest "Frank sister".
Perhaps one of the most influential and illustrious Torah families of that era was that of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Frank, a wealthy fur merchant in Kovno, Lithuania, and a devoted follower of Torah and mussar. Rabbi Frank, who died of pneumonia at the age of 43, left four daughters yet unmarried, and in his will, he asked that his wife, Golda, marry off each daughter to a young man who showed the signs of becoming a "gadol b'yisrael"—a true leader of the Jewish people, a colossus of Torah in its knowledge, thought, diligence, commitment, and values. Rebbetzin Frank took this mission very seriously, and she investigated every candidate thoroughly.
In the end, Rabbi Frank's prayer was realized. His sons-in-law became the pillars of Torah Jewry through the next generation, and its guides after the ashes of the Holocaust. When the European strongholds of Torah were replanted in America and Israel, it was the sons-in-law and grandsons of Rabbi Shraga Frank who cultivated it. These four leaders were Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer of Slabodka and Kletzk, Rabbi Boruch Horowitz of Slabodka, Rabbi Sheftel Kramer of Slutzk and later New Haven, Connecticut; and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein.
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