Rav Yitzchok Alfasi the Rif (Iyar 10, 4864 / 1104 - 920th Yahrzeit)
Rabbi Yitzchok Alfasi, one of the greatest of the early codifiers of Jewish Law, whose name is familiar to all students of the Talmud, was born in Kalat ibn Hamad, a village near Fez, in North Africa, in the Jewish year 4773, or 1013 of the Common Era. His name "Alfasi" (or Alfes) means (in Arabic) a native of Fez. He is also known as RIF (from the initials of Rabbi Isaac Fasi).
The RIF studied the Talmud under the famous Rabbinical authorities Rabbenu Nissim and Rabbenu Hananel in Kairwan, a city not far from Fez, which, by virtue of these two great luminaries, was then one of the leading centers of Talmudic learning. Afterwards he returned to Fez, where he became the head of the Jewish community. When his two great teachers passed away (about the year 1050), Rabbi Yitzchok Alfasi became the greatest recognized Talmud authority of his day, which was the second generation after the period of the Geonim came to an end, with the closing down of the great Yeshivos in Bavel.
Rav Meir Margolios Meir Nesivim, Sod Yochin u'Boaz (Iyar 10, 5550 / 1790 - 234th Yahrzeit)
Av Beis Din Lwow (Lvov) and Ostrog Author Meir Nesivim and Sod Yachin U’Boaz
Son of Rav Tzvi Hirsch Margolios Av Beis Din Yazlowitch / Yazlovits, and his second wife Sheintzia.
In sefer Shemen HaTov (Vol 2 #106) in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, there are three famed families with impeccable yichus that can be traced generation after generation, and they are: the Margolios, Shapira, and Horowitz families. The Baal Shem had three beloved disciples, each from these families: Rav Meir Margolios, author of Meir Nesivim; Rav Pinchos Shapira of Koretz, author Imrei Pinchos; and Rav Tzvi Hirsch HaLevi Horowitz of Tshortshkov, the father of the famed Rav Shmelka of Niksolsberg; and Rav Pinchos of Frankfurt, author Haflaah.
Rav Meir studied under his maternal uncle Rav Aryeh Leibush of Stanislov and with the wise sages in the famed kloiz in Brody together with the author of the Noda BeYehudah, Rav Gershon Kitover, Rav Moshe Otsrover and Rav Chaim Sanzer.
He authored Meir Nesivim, 2 volumes on Shu”t Halachic Responsa, and chiddushei Torah on Shas and Chumash, Ohr Olam on the Four Turim in prose, Kasnos Ohr on taryag mitzvos (as a poem), Derech HaTov veHayasher on Shulchan Aruch (also in prose and verse), as well as his sefer on Chassidus: Sod Yachin U’Boaz.
His children:
- His sons: Rav Shaul Av Beis Din Zabraz and Komarna and was Rosh Yeshiva in Lublin; Rav Yosef Nachman, Av Beis Din Polnoy; Rav Naphtali Mordechai, Av Beis Din of Hormilov; Rav Shlomo DovBer; and Rav Betzalel, Av Beis Din, Zhvill and afterwards, his father’s successor in Ostrog.
- His daughters: The wife of Rav Naphtali Hertz Kohen, AvBeisDin Sharingrad; and the wife of Rav Simchah Katz.
Rav Yosef Tumim Pri Megodim (Iyar 10, 5552 / 1792 - 232nd Yahrzeit)
Author of the Pri Megadim on the Shulchan Aruch.
