September 4 1827 – 18 Elul 5587
Hasidic master Rabbi Simha Bunim of Peshischa (Przysucha, in Poland) passed away. He was the greatest disciple of the Holy Jew of Peshischa, deepening and enriching his master’s teachings and turning his Hasidic court into one of the largest. Rabbi Simha Bunim supported himself and his family by working as a pharmacist – the profession he’d studied before joining the Hasidic movement – so as not to use his rabbinic position to enrich himself. Among his many major disciples were Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kotsk, Rabbi Isaac Meyer Alter, founder of the Hasidic dynasty of Gur, and Rabbi Mordecai Yosef Leiner, founder of the Izhbitz dynasty.