Reb Nosson Nota Spira zy"a
The Megaleh Amukos zy"a
דער הייליגער מגלה עמוקות זי״ע
Upcoming yahrzeit: 16 August 2027 (5787)
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The Megaleh Amukos zy"a, Reb Nosson Nota Spira, was a rav and mekubal in Poland, and he served as rav in Krakow. A talmid of the Maharam of Lublin zy"a, he had a big chelek in spreading the Torah of the Ari zal throughout Poland. He was the mechaber of a number of seforim, most of all the Megaleh Amukos. These sentences already stood on the earlier site.
He was born around 1585 to Reb Shlomo Spira and was named after his zeide. Around 1608 he settled in Kazhimiezh and married Roza, daughter of the ashir Reb Moshe Yekeles, who was machzik him so he could learn without taking a salary. In 1617, at about thirty-one, he became rosh yeshiva and darshan of Krakow in place of Reb Moshe Mordechai Margaliyos zy"a. His shver built him the “shul on the hill.”
The Megaleh Amukos offers 252 approaches to Moshe Rabbeinu's tefillah “Let me please cross over.” He was niftar on 13 Av 5393 (20 July 1633) and rests in the Remah Beis Hachaim in Krakow, not far from the Remu zy"a.
Historical background
The Megaleh Amukos zy"a lived in Krakow a dor after the Remu zy"a, still a capital of Polish Torah, and just before the churban of Tach v'Tat. In those years Toras Ha'Ari, first taught in Tzfas, took root in Poland. Tikkun chatzos, brought from Tzfas, was already practiced in Krakow. The long wars in Europe were already changing the velt; the gezeiros of Tach v'Tat, which would be a terrible churban for Polish Jewry, came fifteen years after his histalkus.
Before & after
Who came before
- The Remu zy"a — The earlier godol of Krakow, who rests in the same Beis Hachaim
- Reb Moshe Mordechai Margaliyos zy"a — The mekubal he succeeded as rosh yeshiva and darshan of Krakow in 1617
Who came after
- The Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a — A later rav of Krakow (from 1643), who also rests in the Remah Beis Hachaim
- The Shach, Reb Shabbesai HaKohen zy"a — Named in the sources as his greatest talmid
In his dor
- The Bach zy"a, Reb Yoel Sirkis — Av Beis Din of Krakow from 1619, in the same years the Megaleh Amukos zy"a served as rosh yeshiva and darshan. He was niftar in 1640, seven years later, and rests in the same Beis Hachaim.
- The Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a (in his earlier Prague years) — A younger contemporary; he came to the Krakow rabbonus only after 1643. The Megaleh Amukos zy"a was niftar in 1633.
Sources
The facts on this page come from the earlier site and from the sources listed here. Where the sources are not one shittah, it is written in the text.
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