Simcha Bunem from Przysucha

Simcha Bunem from Przysucha

Simcha Bunem von Przysucha (* 1765 ; † 1827 in Przysucha / Poland) was a Hasidic tzaddik in Poland .

life and work

His father, Rav Zvi, was a traveling preacher ( Maggid ) in Poland and Western Europe. In his youth, Simcha Bunem studied in Jeschiwot in Mattersdorf and Nikolsburg . After his return to Poland he went to Leipzig as an employee in a wood processing company , later graduated in pharmacology in Gdansk , opened a pharmacy in Przysucha and became wealthy. At the same time he sat in Lublin his Hasidic studies the Seer of Lublin continued and became a friend and favorite pupil of Yaakov Yitzhak of Przysucha , whom he succeeded as a tzaddik.

Simcha Bunem was not a man of miracles, but based his interpretation of Hasidism on the study of the Torah . Scholarly young men gathered around him, many of whom left their families for a period of time to lead a Hasidic life in Przysucha or Pschys'cha, as the place was called in Yiddish . His students studied the Talmud and taught works, especially the writings of Judah Löw , the “Maharal” from Prague . Simcha Bunem shared the view of his teacher, according to which it depends on the inner attitude in the execution of the commandments , and in particular postponed the starting times of the ritual prayers. His followers began to pray only after they had reached the required state of mind through previous meditation , and they resisted certain outward appearances of the Hasidic lifestyle. Simcha Bunem took an active part in the political life of Polish Jewry ; he was elected as the Jewish representative of the Sandomierz Province and was a member of the government commission ("Komitet") on Jewish affairs.

As a core statement, Hasidism demands from Przysucha conscious honesty with oneself. Simcha Bunem said that the Hasid must also apply the commandment “You should not deceive one another” ( Lev 25,17  EU ) to yourself. A traditional saying of him reads: “God's works are a mystery; reason is easy, therefore reason is greater than works. ”Towards the end of his life he became blind, but continued his studies and teaching. He named his son Abraham Moses as his successor, but the leadership of the group was actually taken over by Menachem Mendel von Kotzk . His students included Yitzchak Meir Alter , the founder of the Hasidic Ger movement in Góra Kalwaria , Mordechai Josef from Izbica Lubelska and Chanoch from Aleksandrów. Simcha Bunem's statements were collected by his students and appeared in Kol Simcha in 1859 .

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica , Vol. 14 pp. 1570-1571.
• Martin Buber : The stories of the Hasidim. Zurich 1949. New edition with index and foreword: Manesse, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7175-2368-0 .