Rabbi
Chanoch Dov Padwa (17 August 1908–16 August 2000) was a world-renowned
Orthodox Jewish posek,
Talmudist and rabbinic leader.
Early years
Chanoch Dov Padwa was born on 17 August 1908 (20 Av 5668 in the Hebrew calendar) in
Busk, a small town in
Galicia (now
Ukraine). His father, Eliezer Wolf, named him after the rabbi of nearby
Alesk. At five years old, he moved with his family to
Vienna to escape the
First World War.
From an early age, Chanoch Dov was known as an "ilui" (Talmudic prodigy), studying at the
yeshiva of
Tzelem,
Hungary and in the
Belzer Shtiebel in
Cracow,
Poland. A lifelong Belzer
Chasid, he travelled to Belz from Cracow in 1926, to participate in the funeral of the Belzer
Rebbe, Rabbi
Yissochor Dov Rokeach.
Besides studying in Vienna under Rabbi Chaim Pinter of
Bukovsk, his primary teacher, Chanoch Dov was close to the
Tchebiner Rov and the Rabbi of
Teplik. With growing recognition as a highly gifted scholar, he married Chana Gittel, the daughter of Naphtoli Gottesman, secretary to the Hasidic master Rabbi
Aharon of Belz (date unknown). His first employment was as the rabbi of synagogue in Vienna but he was arrested as an alien and imprisoned when
Austria was annexed by
Nazi Germany in the
Anschluss of 1938.
Rabbi Henoch, as he became affectionately known, was released just in time to escape WWII Europe by catching the very last ship bound for the
British Mandate of Palestine. Accompanied by his wife and children he arrived at the port...
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