Rav Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam of Shinova, author of Divrei Yechezkel
Born in Taringrad, Galicia on 20 Shevat in the year 1815/5575 (other biographers say variously, 1816/5576, 1811/5571, or 1813/5573 -- see Yag Oros Rabbeinu Hakadosh MiShinova)
He was the first-born son of the renowned Rav Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, author of Divrei Chaim and Rachel Feiga, the daughter of Rav Baruch Frenkel Teomim, author of the Baruch Ta’am.
He was named Yechezkel after his ancestor, Rav Yechezkel Yehoshua Feivel AvBeisDin Premisla, the author of the sefer, Panim Masbiros. The Uhjler Rav, author of Yismach Moshe said that Rav Yechezkel was a holy soul from the moment of birth. It was told that when the Shinover Rav’s mother was expecting and came before the holy Chozeh of Lublin, to the astonishment of those present, he rose up to his full height, apparently in her honor. The tzaddik explained himself: “I am not rising for her sake, although she is the daughter of the gadol hador the Baruch Ta’am and an eshes chaver, the wife of the renowned Divrei Chaim of Sanz; rather, I am rising for the honor of the unborn child in her womb whose light shall illuminate the entire world!”
Indeed, many years later, the Divrei Yechezkel would say that all his lofty spiritual levels were attained thanks to the blessings of the holy Chozeh. For that reason, he was accustomed to refer to him simply as “Der Rebbe.”
When he was seven years old, run over by a heavy wagon carrying a load of firewood. Though his young body was crushed in the accident, he lived. His father’s rebbe, the heilige Ropshizter Rav, Rav Naphtali Tzvi Horowitz, brought about a miraculous recovery for despite his liver being split in half. The Ropshitzer had sent olive oil and when they rubbed the oil into his body, he felt his bones fix and mend themselves!
The Divrei Yecheskel married Taba, the daughter of Rav Aryheh Leib Lipschitz of Vishnitza, the author of Aryeh Dvei Illai. After his marriage, he moved to Uhjel (Hungary), the town of his father-in-law’s grandfather, Rav Moshe Teitelbaum, the Yismach Moshe. There, he basked in the light of the Yismach Moshe, where he toiled in Torah and avodah some ten years.
His children were Rav Naphtali, and Dreizel, who became the wife of Rav Pinchos Teomim Frenkel AvBeisDin Bikovsk and Cheshonov.
After his first wife passed away, the Yismach Moshe made him a shidduch with his great granddaughter, Devora, the daughter of Rav Mordechai Zilberstein of Halshitz, who was the son-in-law of the Aryeh Dvei Illai. He married her on Tu b’Shevat of 1840/5600.
His children from this marriage were: Rav Moshe, the younger rav of Vishnitza and Chayah Sarah, the wife of Rav Elazar Bindiger.
His third marriage was to Breindel, the daughter of Rav Yehudah Tzvi Hirsch AvBeisDin Razla, however, this marriage did not produce additional children. When his wife passed away childless, he had a sefer Torah written in her memory and commanded it to never be removed from the aron kodesh even to greet other seforim by a hachnasas sefer Torah procession. It remained there until the war.
His fourth marriage was to Chanah Rochel, the daughter of Rav Tzvi Hirsch AvBeisDin Leshnov (the brother of Rebbetzin Malka, wife of the first Belzer Rebbe, the Sar Shalom). She was blessed with children: Miriam Malka, the wife of Rav Naphtali Rubin AvBeisDin Vishnitza; Feiga Beila, the wife of Rav Menachem Mendel Halberstam of Pristik; Rav Avrohom Shalom, author of Divrei Shalom and founder of the Stropkover Dynasty; Rav Aryeh Leibush of Tarna; and Rav Simchah Yissocher Ber AvBeisDin of Cheshnov, author of Divrei Simchah.
His fifth wife was Sheindel, the daughter of Rav Avrohom Gvirtzman of Gorlitz, who was a descendant of the Noam Elimelech of Lizensk. This marriage did not produce any children.
The Divrei Yechezkel travelled to many of the day’s renowned tzaddikim. He noted 256 greats from whom he received blessings, many of whom were hidden tzaddikim that only he could discern!
His first rebbe was his father, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, and even when he himself had hundreds of followers and chassidim he still treated his father as his rebbe and acted towards him in the manner of a chassid. His rebbe muvhak was the Sar Sholom of Belz, and he adopted many Belzer minhagim. He made journeys to visit Rav Asher Yeshaya Rubin of Ropshitz and, after his passing, to Rav Tzvi Hirsch of Rymanov whose divrei Torah are cited several times in Divrei Yechezkel. The Rymanover once pointed to the Shinover Rav while he was drawing well water for matzo baking and remarked to the onlookers “There goes one who is not a soul in a body, but rather a soul within a soul!”
Other tzaddikim he travelled to included: Rav Shimon Yaroslover, the Sabba Kadisha of Radoshitz; Rav Meir of Premishlan; Rav Yisroel of Rizhin; Rav Dovid Moshe of Tshortkov; the Tzemach Tzaddik of Vishnitz; Rav Dovid of Tolna; Rav Yitzchok of Skver; the Bais Aharon of Karlin; and Rav Yitzchok Neshchizer. He even once travelled in his youth to the Toras Chaim of Kosuv.
He was renowned for bringing about miracles, for his clear halachic decisions, and for demonstrating outstanding control over his middos. The Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz once met a shamash in the Sadigura Shul in Tiveria where the Divrei Yechezkel davened during his visits in Eretz Yisroel. The shamash told how his father was the shamash before him and the Divrei Yechezkel asked that he be able to immerse in the shul’s mikvah on condition that the mikvah be drained and then cleaned, and that it should be filled again with pristine water. “’No one must immerse before me!’ he had ordered.” The shamash continued, “My father, the shamash, complied, yet he wondered at the strange request, thinking, ‘How would he even know?’ He decided to test the rebbe. He drained and refilled the mikvah and himself took a quick dip. After drying off, he invited the rebbe to use the new clean mikvah. A few moments later he heard the loud voice of the rebbe demand to know: ‘Who dipped in this mikvah before me?’ The shamash, shaking head to toe in embarrassment and shame, admitted his guilt. ‘Do you have any children?’ the tzaddik thundered at him. ‘No,’ the shamash stammered. ‘Then, I bless you that by next year you should have a baby boy!’”
“I am that son,” explained the shamash to the Imrei Chaim of Vishnitz who was delighted by the tale of the Divrei Yechezkel and his middos.
The Divrei Yechezkel, The Shinover, was rav in Rudnik, and after his third father-in-law’s passing, he succeeded him in Razla. After seven years, in 1856/5616, he was appointed as rav in Shinova where he was rav and rebbe for the next eleven years. He served as Rav of Stropkov 1868/5628 and after the Divrei Chaim’s passing in 1876/5636, he succeeded his father as AvBeisDin in Sanz. Shortly after, he passed the position over to his brother Rav Aharon, while he himself returned to Stropkov until 1881/5641. Then he returned to Shinova where he remained until his passing on 6 Teves 1898/5659. His disciple, Rav Akiva Cohen Liber of Yashnitza, collected his divrei Torah and published them as Divrei Yechezkel in 1900/5661.
