RADOMSKO (Radomsk), SOLOMON HA-KOHEN RABINOWICH OF

RADOMSKO (Radomsk ), SOLOMON HA-KOHEN RABINOWICH OF (1803–1866), ḥasidic ẓaddik. Solomon studied in the yeshivah of Piotrkow under Abraham Ẓevi, author of the responsa Berit Avraham (1819). His father educated him in Ḥasidism. In his youth he joined Meir of *Apta, leader of the popular trend in Polish Ḥasidism after the death of *Jacob Isaac ha-Ḥozeh ("the Seer") of Lublin. In 1834 Solomon was appointed rabbi of Radomsk, and from 1843 he was accepted as an ḥasidic rabbi. Solomon's teachings were in the spirit of the popular trend of Polish Ḥasidism. He engaged in public affairs and worked on behalf of the poor of his town. His striking personality, his enthusiastic way of praying, and his witty sayings attracted to him many disciples, among them the Ḥasid and philosopher Aaron *Marcus (Verus) and the physician Ḥayyim David Bernard of Piotrkow. Solomon's book, Tiferet Shelomo (1867–69), is considered one of the classic works of Polish Ḥasidism. His successor was abraham issachar ha-kohen (d. 1892), author of Ḥesed le-Avraham (1893–95), who in turn was succeeded by his son ezekiel ha-kohen (d. 1911), author of Keneset Yeḥezkel (1913). The last of the ḥasidic rabbis of Radomsk in Poland before the Holocaust was solomon enoch ha-kohen (d. 1942), famous for his establishment of a network of yeshivot called Keter Torah. He was murdered in the Warsaw ghetto. His novellae and those of his son-in-law David Moses, who was killed at the same time, were collected in the book Shivḥei Kohen (1953).

bibliography:

I.M. Rabinowitz, Ohel Shelomo (1924); idem, Ateret Sholomo (1926); A. Marcus (Verus), Der Chassidismus (1901), 363–5; Sefer Yizkor le-Kehillat Radomsk ve-ha-Sevivah (1967), 22–26, 75–106, 110–4.

[Zvi Meir Rabinowitz]