R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk: 100 Years Later, There Is Still More to Discover: Books, Articles, Speeches, & More
R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk: 100 Years Later, There Is Still More to Discover: Books, Articles, Speeches, & More
By: Eliezer Brodt
Last week, on Monday, the fourth of Elul, was the 100th yahrzeit of R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk. R’ Meir Simcha is best known for his two works: the Meshech Chochmah on Chumash and Ohr Somayach on Rambam.
In honor of this milestone, places around the world held shiurim and conferences exploring R’ Meir Simcha’s legacy. It is remarkable to see how much attention has been devoted to this giant of Torah. Yet even with all that has been written about him, I believe there is still more to discover.
In this post, as a curator of information, I would like to gather and provide links to some of the recent material about him, along with selected older works and resources. This is by no means an attempt to provide a comprehensive bibliography, but rather to highlight some of the valuable material available.
Recent Coverage
In anticipation of the 100th yahrzeit, the Pesach issue of Mishpacha devoted a substantial and beautifully illustrated article to R’ Meir Simcha, Reason to Rejoice: The Life & Wisdom of Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, by Dovi Safier, with additional research by Moshe Dembitzer (available here). I highly recommend it. The print edition is particularly worthwhile, with its beautiful photographs and documents.
I also recommend the remarkable English hesped delivered by Rav Herzog, originally published in the Jewish Chronicle on February 25, 1927. In 2010, my good friend Shimon Steinmetz of On the Main Line located the article (see here), and Rabbi Dunner has since transcribed it (here).
More recently, Professor Chaim Oscar Jacob published a very nice article titled R’ Meir Simcha Cohen of Dvinsk: A Centennial Reappraisal at The Lehrhaus (here). A recent issue of HaPels also featured several articles on R’ Meir Simcha in Hebrew.
English Translations
A few years ago, Rabbi Munk translated the Meshech Chochmah (here).
More recently, an English volume based on R’ Meir Simcha’s material, written by Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein, From the World of the Meshech Chochmah, was published by Mosaica Press and is available here.
Even more recently, Rabbi Avrohom Wagner published Meshech Chochmah, Sefer Bereishis, through Mechon Aleh Zayis. This is a full English translation and elucidation of the Meshech Chochmah on Sefer Bereishis, with the original text set alongside, together with in-depth annotation and explanatory notes. It’s available for purchase here.
In addition, a collection of R’ Shmaryah Shulman’s glosses on the Meshech Chochmah, edited by Yehudah Esral, was just published in booklet format by Mechon Aleh Zayis. These notes were originally published in a Sefer Zichron volume titled Pnei Moshe, available here. For a recent shiur about this volume from the author of this article (i.e., Eliezer), see here.
Early works about him
Rav Zevin devoted a chapter to R’ Meir Simcha in his magnificent work Ishim VShitos, based on earlier articles of his.
Also worth noting is the classic work by R’ Zev Rabiner, in Hebrew, first published in 1967, (available here) at HebrewBooks. Rabiner had spent forty years gathering information about R’ Meir Simcha for this work. His book is widely quoted, and yet others feel they can borrow from him without attribution. One such work is R’ Asher Bergman’s HaOhr Somayach, published in 2011. While this book does add new material to the discussion about R’ Meir Simcha, he does not give much credit to his main source — Rabiner’s work, which had received a nice haskamah from his grandfather, Rav Schach. Bergman also censors various material that he brings down in the book.
In recent years, the journal Hakirah featured two very valuable articles from R’ Yonah Steinmetz in English: Shedding Light: R. Meir Simhạh ha-Kohen’s Approach to Ta’amei ha-Mitzvot in Meshekh Họkhmah (see here) and A Light Unto Our Nation: R. Meir Simhạh of Dvinsk’s Approach to Nationhood and Zionism in Meshekh Họkhmah (see here).
Academic
A valuable academic work on R’ Meir Simcha is Yitzchack Cohen’s Ohr Somayach: Halacha Umisphat (available here), which has been translated partially as The Unique Judicial Vision of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk: Selected Discourses in Meshekh Hokhmah and Or Sameah (available here). An earlier useful work is from Yonah Ben Sasson- Mishnato ha Iyunit Shel Ba‘al Meshekh Ḥokhmah. One last point worth mentioning is that Professor Yeshaya Lebovitz also devoted lectures to the Meshech Chochmah, some of which were published in his work Shevah Shanim Shel Sichos Al Parshas Hashevuah.
Editions of his works
When talking about the Meshech Chochmah, one must mention the very useful edition of Rabbi Cooperman, including its impressive introduction.
Rabbi Domb has put out a remarkable edition of his own — one can only hope he’s able to raise the funds to finish it. Beginning around 1993, he has done incredible work on the Meshech Chochmah, including drawing on manuscript material of the sefer, and to date has published three volumes.
Thanks to the early efforts of Rabbi Yehudah Greenwald, we also have R’ Meir Simcha’s Chidushim on Shas, which he discovered from manuscript (available here and here). Special mention must be made of the noteworthy material on R’ Meir Simcha that R’ Greenwald gathered and published from different sources long before search engines, Otzar HaChochma, and HebrewBooks, found in the back of volume two. Eventually, his discoveries led to further discoveries of material by R’ Meir Simcha.
I would also like to mention the fine edition of the Ohr Somayach from Rabbi Kritzler of Bnei Brak.
Speeches
Last Sunday night there were three great shiurim in Lakewood, organized by Mechon Aleh Zayis, from R’ Lipha Geldworth, the legendary R’ Yankel Drillman, and R’ Uran Reich. The shiurim were recorded, and one can see them at this link.
R’ Reich also has a weekly shiur on the Meshech Chochmah, which can be viewed on Torah Anytime.
R’ Asher Weiss gave a special shiur about R’ Meir Simcha, available here.
Yeshivas Ohr Somayach also held an event where Rabbi Breitowitz and Rabbi Leff spoke about him, each adding their own perspective available here.
R’ Michoel Sorotzkin also gave a talk about him, available here.
An academic conference was also held in his honor at Michlalet Herzog in Gush Etzion (here), which will hopefully send along links to the videos — I will update the post once I have them.
Media
A few years back, Professor Marc Shapiro devoted four lectures to him as part of his series Jewish History Uncensored available here (1, 2, 3, 4). Yehudah Geber dedicated an episode to him as well, at Jewish History Sound bites, available here.
My Own Lectures
Lastly, since one has to self-promote themselves a bit these days— I also just gave two lectures about R’ Meir Simcha at All Daf and will IYH be recording two more in the coming week. One can view them here: Part One & Part two or at All Daf (here and here). Comments are always appreciated, and sponsorships are still available to help me record Part Four!