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Page of novellae by R. Mordecai Dov Twersky of Hornistopol (29 Kislev 1840-22 Elul 1903) from his work Turei Zahav. He was born in Hornistopol, the son R. Meshullam Zusya. His mother, Sterna Rachel, the daughter of R. Jacob Israel of Cherkassy, died when he was six years old. He and his two sisters were sent by his father (who had remarried) to live with their maternal grandfather. A child prodigy, he became a master of Talmud and Kabbalah. In 1855, in Husyatin, he married Reiza, the daughter of R. Hayyim Halberstam, the Sanzer. He studied there with R. Naftali Halberstam, the grandson of his father-in-law, and with his brother-in-law, R. Joseph of Linitz. In 1860, when R. Jacob Israel left Hornistopol for Cherkassy after twenty-six years of service in that town, R. Mordecai Dov, in 1873, assumed the position of rebbe there. He also traveled to various other communities to visit his hasidim.
He was the president of the kollel Volhynia, a position previously held by his grandfather. He corresponded with many halakhic authorities, such as R. Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lvov; R. Yitzhak Aaron Ettinger of Przemysl; R. Hayyim Berlin; R. Rafael Shapira of Volozhin; R. Hayyim Ha1berstam, his father-in-law; R. Rafael Shapira; and R. Joshua Leib Diskin of Jerusalem.
His responsa, which total about 184, were published posthumously under the title Emek She'elah (Piotrokov, 1906; Tel Aviv, 1961; New York, 1975). They deal with problems on the four codes of the Shulhan Arukh. He was also the author of Hibur LeTaharah (Berdichev, 1898; New York, 1975) on the laws of ritual washing and on mikvaot. His Turei Zahav (Jerusalem, 1936 and 1969) is a commentary on the laws of interest as codified in the Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah. He also wrote Pele Yoetz (Tel Aviv, 1970)-discourses on Genesis, Exodus, Hanukkah, and Purim. Another book, Emek HaHokhmahon the weekly portions of the Torah, discourses on the completion of the Talmud, dedication of a Bet HaMidrash, and eulogies-was published together with those of R. Jacob Israel Emek HaTefillah under the title Shoshanat HaAmakim (Lublin, 1884; Satmar, 1928; Jerusalem, 1928).
The manuscripts of two of his unpublished works-Kad HaZahav on Kabbalah and a treatise on the laws pertaining to the names of divorce bills-were destroyed. The first one was lost in a fire that burned down his house and Bet HaMidrash on 7 Sivan 1882, and the second one in a pogrom in 1918-19.
All of his sons became hasidic rebbes in different cities: R. Aaron Elimelekh Shneur Za1man in Krasnoe, Galicia; R. Hayyim Moses Tzvi (9 Adar 1866-20 Kislev 1934), who succeeded his father-in-law in Rotmistrovka; and the youngest son, R. Barukh David (1875-26 Kislev 1926), who was rebbe in Kalinkovichi in White Russia and whose discourses were published in Yevarekh David.
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