Hillel Poisic
Encyclopedia
Rabbi
Hillel Poisic (15.1.1881 Zlatopol
, Ukraine – 1953 Tel Aviv
, Israel
) was a communal worker and Torah scholar
. He was an expert in releasing agunot
from their husbands, who abandoned them without divorce.
The Poisic (also Poisik, Posek, Possek) family is a rabbinical family originated in the Shapira
family and connected to it in marriage relationships. The Poisic members were active in Ukraine
.
Rabbi Hillel Poisic's father, Rabbi Elijah Poisic (1859-1932), was one of the most important Rabbis in Ukraine. He served as rabbi in Mohlika and in Zlatopol and composed Responsa and halakhic books about Sukkot
, Maimonides
and the letter of divorce (get). His expertise was in circumcision law. His mother, Matalia, daughter of Zwi Sonik, was the granddaughter of Rabbi Chaim Chaikel Shapira from Kalininblatt (in Kiev
district), father of Rabbi Judah Josef Loeb Shapira, president of the rabbinical court in Rakhmistrivka, and R. Israel Volodarsky, president of court in Petrikovka (in Kherson
district).
Rabbi Hillel studied Torah with his father and grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Poisic. He received his ordination
as rabbi by the most important rabbis in south Russia
, Rabbi Moshe Nathan Rubinstein from Vinnitsa and the Rabbi Yosef Halperin, president of the court of the Jewish community in Odessa
.
s began in Ukraine (in 1920) and the different gangs of robbers oppressed him much and threw him to the jail for several times, he decided to move to Romania
. In 1921 he escaped together with his family from the revolt, pogroms and religions suppression in Russia. He went through many tribulations of travel till he arrived in 1921 to Bessarabia
(east Moldova
), which belonged to Romania that time. He served one year as rabbi in Markulshty and later on in Tatarbunary
, Bessarabia (Akkerman district, Romania-Bessarabia). He was received there as a "Romanian citizen" and as a formal rabbi. He was also a Jewish religions teacher in the governmental high schools. There he began again to be engaged in communal work; he founded charity institutions and distributed the Torah amongst the poor.
During 1921-1935 he was active in favor of Zionism
and served as communal worker of "Ha-Mizrachi
" in Romania. In 1925 he organized a group of Jews from his community to acquire land in Bnei Brak through the company "New Palestine" from Kishinev. In 1929 and 1932 his wife visited in Israel, each time for approximately a whole year, and visited in all kinds of institutes and settlements.
In 1935, as the situation in Romania deteriorated and as the antisemitism was strengthened, Rabbi Hillel decided to immigrate to Israel, and on Passover evening 1935 he arrived to Israel together with his family and influenced successfully many other from his community to immigrate to Israel. He settled in Tel-Aviv and devoted himself to arrange his works in Torah issues and to complete parts of his works that were lost during his wanderings in Russia.
In 1938 he established an association/office in order to help to free agunot (in Hebrew, sing. agunah
), namely deserted (abandoned) wives, whose husbands have disappeared without divorcing them. In 1940-1953 he edited and composed the monthly magazine Ha-Possek for Halakha
and Aggadah
issues, including responses in these issues. Besides he also compiled and edited the works of his father, prepared a book about civil marriage and divorce in Russia (1952) and published about Torah and Judaism
issues.
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Hillel Poisic (15.1.1881 Zlatopol
Zlatopol
Zlatopol is a small city in Ukraine, located about 80 km northwest to Kirovohrad, near Kiev.- History :Before the Holocaust, Zlatopol was a prosperous very rich Jewish Shtetl. There was also a gymnasium for rich people in Zlatopol...
, Ukraine – 1953 Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
) was a communal worker and Torah scholar
Torah study
Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts...
. He was an expert in releasing agunot
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
from their husbands, who abandoned them without divorce.
The Poisic (also Poisik, Posek, Possek) family is a rabbinical family originated in the Shapira
Shapira
Shapira is a surname, and may refer to:* Anita Shapira* Avraham Shapira, rabbi* Benjamin Shapira, Israeli biochemist.* Berechiah Berak ben Isaac Eisik Shapira, 17th-century rabbi* David Shapira* Haim-Moshe Shapira, Israeli politician...
family and connected to it in marriage relationships. The Poisic members were active in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
Rabbi Hillel Poisic's father, Rabbi Elijah Poisic (1859-1932), was one of the most important Rabbis in Ukraine. He served as rabbi in Mohlika and in Zlatopol and composed Responsa and halakhic books about Sukkot
Sukkot
Sukkot is a Biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . It is one of the three biblically mandated festivals Shalosh regalim on which Hebrews were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.The holiday lasts seven days...
, Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
and the letter of divorce (get). His expertise was in circumcision law. His mother, Matalia, daughter of Zwi Sonik, was the granddaughter of Rabbi Chaim Chaikel Shapira from Kalininblatt (in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
district), father of Rabbi Judah Josef Loeb Shapira, president of the rabbinical court in Rakhmistrivka, and R. Israel Volodarsky, president of court in Petrikovka (in Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
district).
Rabbi Hillel studied Torah with his father and grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Poisic. He received his ordination
Semicha
, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...
as rabbi by the most important rabbis in south Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Rabbi Moshe Nathan Rubinstein from Vinnitsa and the Rabbi Yosef Halperin, president of the court of the Jewish community in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
.
Biography
In 1998 Rabbi Hillel Poisic was married to Gitel (Tovah), the daughter of his uncle R. Selig Shapira. In 1899-1921 R. Hillel served as rabbi in Zlatopol and was elected by both the Jewish community and the Ukrainian authorities as a religious rabbi and a formal rabbi. When the pogromPogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s began in Ukraine (in 1920) and the different gangs of robbers oppressed him much and threw him to the jail for several times, he decided to move to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. In 1921 he escaped together with his family from the revolt, pogroms and religions suppression in Russia. He went through many tribulations of travel till he arrived in 1921 to Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
(east Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
), which belonged to Romania that time. He served one year as rabbi in Markulshty and later on in Tatarbunary
Tatarbunary
Tatarbunary is a small town in the Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Tatarbunarskyi Raion , and is located north of the Danube Delta, in Budjak area, approximately south-west of the oblast center, Odessa.The word "Tatarbunary" means "Tatar Wells" in...
, Bessarabia (Akkerman district, Romania-Bessarabia). He was received there as a "Romanian citizen" and as a formal rabbi. He was also a Jewish religions teacher in the governmental high schools. There he began again to be engaged in communal work; he founded charity institutions and distributed the Torah amongst the poor.
During 1921-1935 he was active in favor of Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and served as communal worker of "Ha-Mizrachi
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
" in Romania. In 1925 he organized a group of Jews from his community to acquire land in Bnei Brak through the company "New Palestine" from Kishinev. In 1929 and 1932 his wife visited in Israel, each time for approximately a whole year, and visited in all kinds of institutes and settlements.
In 1935, as the situation in Romania deteriorated and as the antisemitism was strengthened, Rabbi Hillel decided to immigrate to Israel, and on Passover evening 1935 he arrived to Israel together with his family and influenced successfully many other from his community to immigrate to Israel. He settled in Tel-Aviv and devoted himself to arrange his works in Torah issues and to complete parts of his works that were lost during his wanderings in Russia.
In 1938 he established an association/office in order to help to free agunot (in Hebrew, sing. agunah
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
), namely deserted (abandoned) wives, whose husbands have disappeared without divorcing them. In 1940-1953 he edited and composed the monthly magazine Ha-Possek for Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
and Aggadah
Aggadah
Aggadah refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash...
issues, including responses in these issues. Besides he also compiled and edited the works of his father, prepared a book about civil marriage and divorce in Russia (1952) and published about Torah and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
issues.
Publications
- Hapossek (הפוסק): scholarly monthly magazine for Halakah and Aggadah issues, since 1940
- Beit Hillel (Hillel House / בית הלל): scholarly collection, in which many rabbis took part. The book was handed to him in his 70 birthday
- Divrey Hillel (Hillel's Sayings / דברי הלל): 1926, four parts
- Naveh Hillel (Hillel's Habitation / נוה הלל): 1952, commentary on the Choshen MishpatChoshen MishpatChoshen Mishpat is the Hebrew for "Breastplate of Judgement". The term is associated with one of the four sections of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha , Arba'ah Turim. This section treats aspects of Jewish law pertinent to finance, torts, legal procedure and loans and interest in...
, the fourth part of Shulchan AruchShulchan AruchThe Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
by Yosef KaroYosef KaroJoseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro, was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities... - Piskey Eliyahu (Eliyahu's roles / פסקי אליהו): 2 parts, halakhic roles of his father Eliyahu Possek
- The pamphlet Alon Bakhut (the oak of weeping / אלון בכות): 1932, a collection of articles, mourning and consolation letters on the death of his father, R. Eliyahu son of Moshe Zvi Possek
- Etz ha-Sadeh (the Field's Tree / עץ השדה): a book of his father Eliyahu that was published in Romania in 1936 with remarks and additions of his son Hillel
- Kovetz Nidakhim (Remote Collection / קובץ נדחים): R. Hillel prepared this book for printing. The book checks halakhic problems that relate to the results of civil marriage and divorce in Russia and genealogical confusions that these anarchies form.
- R. Hillel also published about Torah and Judaism issues in Beit Vaad le-Hakhamim (= Scholars Meeting-Place), ha-Pisgah (= Climax), Jiddische Wissenschaft (= Yiddistic Science) etc.