Nevertheless, Rav Banet, conscientiously opposing the new tendency, declared every reform in religious observance to be wrong and harmful. Thus, in a letter to the government concerning the introduction of German into divine service (ib. pages 38–42), he wrote in favor of the preservation of Hebrew. His attitude is significant in view of the fact that, many years later, Rav Zacharias Frankel used the same arguments in the convention of Rabbonim at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1845; and events have proven the truth of the prophecy made by Rav Banet: that if the tefillos are said in another language, few Jews will care to study Hebrew, and familiarity with the Hebrew Scripture will gradually cease.
Although Rav Banet was independent in his attitude, his learning and high character gained for him many faithful friends among young and old. Even the Chassidim respected him, and Rav Dov Ber, the “middle Rav” of Chabad, speaks highly of him in a letter (as of 1906) in the possession of J. L. Sossnitz of New York. Compare also Weiss, Zikronotai, pages 77–81.
The communities of Lichtenstadt and Nikolsburg contended for the honor of interring his mortal remains, and the dispute which later arose over the exhumation of the body was fought with the weapons of learning, and figures in the responsa literature of the time.
Rav Mordechai Banet was a talmid of the famed Rav Yechezkel Landau (Noda B’Yehuda) and was considered the Godol HaDor of his time. He was the one who gave the Chasam Sofer semicha.
Rav Mordechai was the Rav in Nikolsburg but in the last years of his life, he fell sick and moved to Lichtenstadt (near Carlsbad) for treatments.
When he was niftar on 13 Menachem Av, the people in Lichtenstadt buried him there quickly because they wanted his merit to stay and protect their town. When the people in Nikolsburg found out what had happened, they raised an uproar – and the question of should they reinter him came before the Chasam Sofer. In his teshuva (responsa), he ultimately gives three reasons why it was mutar to reinter him in Nikolsburg. And so it was: after six months on Zayin Adar his body was removed and brought forth and then on Sunday 12 Adar his holy body was re-interred in Nikolsburg.
Following is the text of his matzeiva – denoting part of this story:
נוסח מצבתו:
מה רב טוב הצפון פה באדמה קבורה
ראש שבטי ישורון אבן פנה יקרה
דמע עיני כל תירדנה על שבר בת עמו
כי לוקח תפארת עוזמו מעל ראשימו
יפעת אורימו חשכה בעלות הכורת עלימו
בשוב נפשו עדינה טהורה אל מקורה
היה בן שבעים וחמש שנים לגבורה
לא נס ליחא ולא כהתה עינו מאורה
העמיד תלמידים הרבה והרביץ תורה
ובאחריתו היתה מאת ה' נסבה בגבורה
כי יסע לעיר קרלסבאד לשתות מי בארה
ושמה בקשו העליונים נפשו הטהורה
ביום ד' י"ג אב עזב אותנו לאנחה וצרה
לפרט עיני עיני ירדה מים ונפשנו מרה
ולמחרתו נקבר ע"מ לפנות בל"ש העירה
ואחריו בז' אדר בהסכמת שרי התורה
העלוהו בניו מקברו והובל פה העירה
והושם בין קברות משפחתו היקרה
בכבוד גדול בבכי והספד מרה
ביום א' י"ב בחדש אדר התק"ץ ליצירה
ה"ה אדוננו גאון הגאונים רשכבה"ג יקר בדורו
ויחיד בעמו כק"ש מו"ה מרדכי בנעט זצ"ל ע"ה
ארבעים שנה היה רועה נאמן
אב"ד ור"מ פה קהלתנו והמדינה
[Editor’s note: Several years ago, I made the trip to Nikolsburg to daven at his kever. We arrived very late at night in the bitter cold and wandered the cemetery aimlessly searching for his kever in the near-pitch darkness. We were almost at the point of leaving, when we quickly davened to be zoche to say a few chapters of Tehillim at his kever. Within seconds, we turned to the next row, and there, right in front of us, was his kever. I can attest that there is a palpable spiritual high at his kever].
Rav Mordechai once went away on summer “break” with his good friend, the Chasam Sofer, for a mere few weeks. When they returned, Rav Mordechai related to his son that the pair covered the complete Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, Shulchon Aruch, Rambam, Ramban and Kisvei HaAri HaKodosh – then stopped himself and said to his son that he had “spoken and revealed too much already”.
We would like to convey our special thanks to Rav Mayer Reichberg (ah brider) and the elusive Rav D. (who refuses to be named publicly) for their tremendous help with Rav Banet’s biography. May Hashem bless them in the zechus of these holy Tzaddikim to receive a profusion of shefa, brocha v’hatzlocha.
