Eim Habanim Smeichah by Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal Hy”d. First Edition.
Budapest, 1944
Printed in the throes of the Holocaust!
Essays on the beauty and praises of Eretz Yisrael, the practical need to settle Eretz Yisrael, and a penetrating self-examination regarding the causes of the Holocaust. They were written in Budapest in the throes of the Holocaust years by Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, Av Beis Din of Pishtian.
Eim Habanim Smeichah
Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal was a fierce opponent of Zionism. His philosophies mirrored those of the Minchas Elazar of Munkacs, until the Holocaust years which instigated a stark change in his beliefs, and he began advocating for mass Jewish emigration to Eretz Yisrael. His changed sentiments are keenly expressed in the present sefer Eim Habanim Smeichah, which he authored while hiding in an attic in an attempt to flee the claws of the Nazis. Amazingly, this sefer was written almost entirely by memory, since the author had virtually no access to other sefarim during this period. (See p. 238)
In this sefer (see p. 16), Rabbi Teichtal laments the fact that European Jewry did not emigrate to Eretz Yisrael which would have spared the bloodshed and carnage (p. 16). He further calls for the mass emigration of Jews of all congregations, streams and factions to Eretz Yisrael which he presents as a key factor for the dawn of the final redemption.
The sefer Eim Habanim Smeichah was written with the author’s lifeblood, first in a hideaway in Slovakia and later while fleeing the Nazi juggernaut in Budapest. In his writings, he mentions the “killings and murders and all forms of brutalities, from infant and babe…” and the destruction of Polish and Slovakian Jewry (p. 80). He then expresses his belief that the root of all these tragic decrees was Bnei Yisrael’s choice to remain in exile among the Gentiles instead of returning to their Land.
The printing of the sefer was completed on Thursday, Parshas Mikeitz, Chanukah 5704 (December 23, 1943).
Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal Hy”d (1885-1945), Av Beis Din and Rosh Yeshivah in Pishtian in west Slovakia, was one of the illustrious Rabbanim in Hungary and Slovakia in the pre-Holocaust era. He corresponded frequently with his contemporaries and authored Shu”t Mishnah Sachir. In his youth, he gained renown as a genius and received semichah from the greatest Rabbanim in Hungary, among them the Arugas HaBosem and Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg of Unsdorf.
With the Nazi conquest, he fled to Hungary, where he spent two years in hiding in Budapest. When false rumors were spread that the deportation of Jews from Slovakia had ceased, he returned to his hometown only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz where he returned his soul to heaven al kiddush Hashem on 10 Shvat,
5705 (February 24, 1945).
Budapest, 1943. First Edition.
Page Count: [11], 3-360 leaves.
Page Size: 23 cm.
Condition: Very good with original binding.
