User:AlexanderRudzitsky/Nahum Waisblat

Rebbe Nukhim Yankelevich Waisblat (Hebrew נחום וויסבלאט Narodichi, Volyn province, now Zhytomyr region 1864 - April 16, 1925, Kyiv) - theologian, author of works, chief rabbi of Kiev in 1898-1925. Chairman of the Rabbinical Court in Kyiv in 1902-1925.

Descendant of the Baal Shem Tov. The great-grandson of the mentor and associate of the Baal Shem Tov, an outstanding Kabbalist Yaakov-Kopla Lifshits (died 1740) and the grandson of Rabbi Y. Kahan.

Born in the village Narodichi (Volyn province, now Zhytomyr region). In young age he became famous as "ha-Gadol mi-Malin" ("the great sage from Malin") - the city where he lived, founded a yeshiva and taught Torah. He wrote and published books, answered halachic questions that came to him from the farthest places.

Since 1898 - the spiritual rabbi of the Merchant Synagogue (today - Shota Rustaveli St. 19). Despite his orthodoxy, he was a multifaceted person, and his apartment on the street Zhilyanskaya, 7 (the house is preserved) was popular not only among rabbis, but among Jewish cultural figures. He was friends with Sholem Aleichem.

To the best of his ability, he helped the victims of the 1905 pogrom. Also in 1911, he was among the signers of the well-known statement of all the rabbis of the Russian Empire in support of the arrested Beilis.

Under Soviet rule, in 1920, he headed the Kiev Committee for Assistance to the Victims of Pogroms (Joint in Kyiv and Kyiv province).

Among his writings are commentaries on the halachic code "Shulchan Aruch" - "Makhatsit ha-shekel" ("Half Shekel") according to "Yore-Dea" on the laws of everyday life, "Mat'amim u-ma'adanim" ("Food and delicacies") - commentary on the section "Even-haEzer" on family law; explanations for the 613 commandments "Pardes ha-rimonim" ("Pomegranate garden"); an essay on ethical and religious issues "Alei ha-gefen" ("Leaves of the Vine"); guide to the laws of the mikvah "Mayim tehorim" ("Clear waters") and many others. etc. However, he was especially famous for the Perpetual Calendar compiled by him (even the greatest mathematicians and engineers were amazed at his knowledge in the mathematical sciences).

These writings won him rabbinical approval from the leading Torah scholars of that generation, including Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor of Kovno.

The works of N. Vaysblat are still being studied in yeshivas and are being republished in new editions. His books are available in the main library of Chabad in New York and in the library of the Schneerson collection at the RSL in Moscow.

He died of stomach cancer on April 16 (Nisan 22 - on the last day of Passover) in Kiev, 1925, was buried at the Lukyanovskoye Jewish cemetery in a separate crypt near the entrance, near the funeral home. In 1963, with the liquidation of the Lukyanovskoe Jewish cemetery, relatives moved the grave to the city cemetery of Berkovtsy. For a long time, the grave was forgotten, and only in 2017, the rabbi's great-grandson Arthur Rudzitsky found the burial place and, with the direct participation of the Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine Moshe Asman, an ohel was erected over it (section 13).

Father of the writer, translator, publisher Professor Vladimir Waisblat, painter, graphic artist and sculptor Joseph Waisblat, medical scientist in the field of dentistry and maxillofacial surgery, Doctor of Medicine, Professor Solomon Waisblat, grandfather of physicist A.V.Waisblat and an immunologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor L.S.Kogosova, great-grandfather of art critic and publisher Arthur Rudzitsky. His daughter Lia Naumovna Drobyazko (1904-1997) was married to the translator Yevgeny Drobyazko.

The younger brother of N.Waisblat - Mordukh-Ber Yankelevich Waisblat (1875-1930), rabbi p.Veledniki, then - the rabbi of Zhitomir (1922-1930), was sentenced on July 1, 1922 by the Volyn provincial tribunal to 5 years "for the salvation of religious values" (GAZhO, F.R-1820, d.2281). In 1926 M.B.Waisblat took part in the Rabbinical Congress in Korosten.

Literature and sources

 * Vaysblat Nukhim. Perpetual calendar. - 1890.
 * Arthur Rudzitsky. Kiev Rabbi. - "From Heart to Heart" magazine. - No. 101; March 2018, pp. 16-17.
 * Say a word about the chief rabbi (In Kiev, the grave of the chief rabbi of the city was discovered in 1902 - 25 years. Nukhim Vaysblat). - Newspaper "Khadashot", No. 6 (241), June 2017, Sivan 5777.- http://hadashot.kiev.ua/content/v-kieve-obnaruzhena-mogila-glavnogo-ravvina-goroda-v-1902-25 -gg-nuhima-vaysblata
 * An ancient Torah scroll from Ukraine was put up for auction in Israel. News portal JewishNews. https://jewishnews.com.ua/society/starinnyij-svitok-toryi-iz-ukrainyi-vyistavili-na-aukczion-v-izraile
 * Old Suviy Tory from Ukraine was listed at the auction in Izrail. RISU - Religiyno-informatsiyna service of Ukraine. https://risu.ua/starovinnij-suvij-tori-z-ukrayini-vistavili-na-aukcioni-v-izrayili_n119127
 * Dr. Israel Goldman. Blessed memory of Rabbi Menachem-Nukhim Vaisblat. http://ju.org.ua/en/Waisblat/1119.html
 * Spivak Benjamin. About the brothers-rabbis Weisblat and the "Perpetual Calendar" aej.org.ua/History/817.html
 * Evgeny Schneider. Perpetual calendar, brothers-rabbis and great tsaddiks: the history of the Jews of Polesie. - https://ujew.com.ua/magazine/u-jew-vyipusk-47/vechnyij-kalendar-bratya-ravvinyi-i-velikie-czadiki-istoriya-evreev-polesya


 * Pavel Zeldich. Kiev Rabbi Vaysblat and his Perpetual Calendar. - "Interesting Kiev", https://interesniy-kiev.livejournal.com/4559024.html
 * גאון יעקב : ספר האחים הרבנים מנחם נחום רב בקיוב [ו]מרדכי דוב רב בז'יטומיר ברבי יעקב װײסבלט : מדברי תורתם, תולדותיהם ... /Geʼon Yaʻaḳov.  Author:             י. בר-מידות (װײסבלט). ; ; Yaʻakov Bar-Midot, Publisher:                [חמו"ל], Tel Aviv : [Ḥ. mo. l.], 728 [1968]