Menachem Nachum Twersky

Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl (* 1730, † 1787 in Chernobyl, Ukraine ) was a Hasidic rabbi and the founder of the Twersky dynasty.

He received his education in Lithuanian yeshivot, which were the center of Jewish orthodoxy at that time. After his marriage he earned a meager living as a teacher. Under the influence of kabbalistic teachings of Isaac Luria, he practiced self-mortification, and spread as the Hasidism began, he undertook a trip to Medschybisch to visit its founder Baal Shem Tov. After the death of the Baal Shem Tov Menachem Nachum became one of the most important disciple of Dov Baer of Mezritch and was one of the first to actively strove for the spread of Hasidism. He was appointed as the Maggid ( preacher ) after Chernobyl, where he lived in poverty. The mitnagdim ( opponents of Hasidism ) were opposite him hostile and sometimes interrupted his sermons by abusive heckling. It is not certain whether Menachem Nachum a Hasidic tzaddik was - tzaddik in the sense of " master" who is resident in one place and there a " yard" (Heb. chazer ) flock here to login. On the other hand, we know that he moved to place as an itinerant preacher in Ukraine of place and strove for the " release of prisoners " - in this case, the triggering of Jewish peasants who were sentenced to prison terms because they the landowners owe the rent remained. His book Maor Ejnajim is a commentary on the Torah and the Talmud selected locations and one of the first Hasidic books. Among the principles that Menachem Nachum particularly stressed was the cleaning of the moral attributes of man. In his commentary, he writes: " As long as the moral attributes of man are not cleaned, it will not be worthy of the Torah. Each day should be devoted to the purification of a specific attribute. , The first day of love, the second is the fear of God and so on "

Menachem Nachum's son, Mordechai of Chernobyl (1770-1837) was born in Chernobyl and took over the preacher of his father. The Chernobyl dynasty branched out into a series of dynasties Mordecai's eight sons, including that of Skver, Rachmastrivka, Trisk and Tolna.