Rashi - R’ Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105), Troyes, France. "Rabban Shel Yisrael" - The great Rishon who wrote commentary on all areas of Torah.
Ba’al HaTurim - Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (1269-1343), Spain; Composer of Arba’ah Turim, tracing Halacha from the Torah through Talmud and early Poskim. Many commentaries were written on the Tur, including R’ Yosef Karo’s “Beit Yosef” which formed the basis of the Shulchan Arukh.
Zera Bareich - Rabbi Berachya Barech bar Yitzhak Isaac Shapira of Krakow (1608-c.1666). Student of R’ Natan Spira, auhor of the Megaleh Amukot.
Zohar - Central work of mystical tradition of Kabbalah. Traditionally attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. First appeared in 13th-century Spain.
Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin - (1823–1900), Lublin, Poland. Born into a Lithuanian Rabbinic family before becoming a follower of the Chasidic Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica, and Yehudah Leib Eiger - grandson of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. Also a disciple of Rabbi Sholom Rokeach of Belz. As a young man he gained widespread acclaim as an illuy - a brilliant talmudist - but refused to accept any rabbinic post, instead eking out a living by his wife running a small used clothing store. Upon the death of R’ Eiger in 1888, agreed to take over the leadership of the Hasidim and deliver public classes whose transcriptions were compiled into his work known as Pri Tzadik.
Be'er Moshe of Ozharov - R' Moshe Yechiel Epstein - Ozharover Rebbe (1889-1971), Poland, New York, Israel; In 1925, went to New York where he set up his Chassidic court on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and then in the Bronx. His entire family in Europe was murdered in the Holocaust. After WWII the remnants of the chasidim of Chentshin were left leaderless, their rebbe having been killed, and they adopted the Ozherover Rebbe, a grandson of the first Chentshiner Rebbe, as their leader. Excited by the new state of Israel, Rabbi Moshe Yechiel moved to Tel Aviv in 1952, where he spent the rest of his life. He was awarded the Israel Prize in the category of Rabbinical literature in 1968.
Vilna Gaon - (The Gra) R’ Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-1797), Vilnius, Poland, Lithuania. Foremost leader of misnagdic Jewry of the past few centuries. Considered the father of the stream of Lithuanian Kabbalah, and remembered as a leader of the opposition to the Hasidic movement.
Rav Shlomo Kluger - R’ Shlomo Kluger (1785-1869), Galicia; Known as the Maggid of Brody, he was chief dayan of Brody, Galicia. As one of the leading rabbinic authorities of his day, Rav Kluger issued rulings on many complex halachic questions.
Siach Yitzchak - Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Chaver (1789-1852), Lithuania; Prominent 19th-century scholar and kabbalist, who served as a rabbi in several Lithuanian towns. He was a student of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklov, who himself had been a student of the Vilna Gaon. Wrote over 35 books on Torah, Jewish law, Jewish thought, and Kabbalah.
Sukas Dovid - Rabbi Dovid Kviat (1920-2009), Poland, Shanghai, Brooklyn; Rosh Yeshiva in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn and the Rabbi of the Agudas Yisroel Synagogue of 18th Avenue. One of the last "Alte Mirrer", the title given to those who studied in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland, and who survived the hands of the Nazis by fleeing with the entire Yeshiva through Siberia to Kobe, Japan and on to Shanghai, China.
Klausenburger Rebbe - R’ Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905–1994), Poland, Romania, Brooklyn, Netanya; Great-grandson of R’ Chaim Halberstam, founder of Sanz chasidic dynasty. Survived Auschwitz, where his wife and ten of his children were murdered. Was assigned to a work unit in the Warsaw Ghetto and later sent to Dachau, and then to the Muldorf Forest. In Spring 1946, established court in Williamsburg, NY.In 1958, established Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Netanya, and moved there in 1960. Also established Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem. Established Laniado Hospital, a voluntary, not-for-profit hospital in Kiryat Sanz, Netanya.
