Simcha Zelig Reguer

Rabbi Simcha Zelig Reguer (born 1864, d.1942), שמחה זעליג ריגר Dayan of Brisk, was the chief Rabbinical judge of Brest-Litovsk and surrounding Lithuania.[1][2]

Biography

Rabbi Reguer and his family lived in the same house (but on separate floors) as Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik, head of the Volozhin Yeshiva, and his family. Both were very close and it is said, that Rabbi Soloveichik would not make a move without Rabbi Reguer's opinion in Torah and all other matters.

He was considered a genius of Torah both among misnagdim and hassidim.

In his memoir, Menachem Begin recalls how Nazi soldiers publicly humiliated Rabbi Reguer in the town square, and slashed his beard.[3]

Rabbi Reguer perished in the holocaust along with most of his community.

Anecdotes

Rabbi Reguer is famously known for his piety and compassion. Once, a woman came to ask the Rabbi if a chicken was not kosher (fit for Jewish consumption) because of some blood traces. The Rabbi knew that if he ruled the chicken not kosher, then the woman and her seven children would go hungry on Shabbat. The Rabbi raised the uncooked chicken and tasted it with the tip of his tongue. The Rabbi found it tasted like bile, and ruled there were no blood traces and the chicken was kosher.

References
  1. http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/stories/081507_43_b.gif
  2. Sara Reguer, My Father's Journey: A Memoir of Lost Worlds of Jewish Lithuania, Academic Studies Press, Boston 2015
  3. Sara Reguer, My Father's Journey: A Memoir of Lost Worlds of Jewish Lithuania, Academic Studies Press, Boston 2015
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