Reb Yossel Kamtzan zy"a — Yossele der heiliger kamtzan
Yossele the Holy Miser zy"a
יוסעלע דער הייליגער קמצן זי״ע
A reliable yahrzeit was not found in the sources used for this draft. Please confirm before listing him on the calendar. [CONFIRM YAHRZEIT]
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Yossele the Holy Miser zy"a — Reb Yossel Kamtzan, Yossele der heiliger kamtzan — lived in Kazhimiezh, the Jewish city of Krakow, in the 17th century. His tziyun stands in the Remah Beis Hachaim, by the wall, next to the Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a. A reliable yahrzeit was not found in the sources used here. [CONFIRM YAHRZEIT]
It is told that he was a wealthy Yid in Krakow, and the city thought of him as a miser, because no one saw him giving tzedakah. When he was niftar, mesoras says, they buried him at the back of the Beis Hachaim, by the wall, in a place that was not given over to kovod. Soon after, the aniyim of the city came to the rav. The weekly help they had been receiving from a hidden baal tzedakah had stopped. Then it became known that Yossele zy"a had been supporting them b'seter all along — one of the highest madreigos of tzedakah, giving so that the giver and the receiver do not know one another.
It is told that the rav was the Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a. He gathered the city to ask mechilah at the kever, and had the word “HaTzaddik” — or “Kadosh” — added on the matzeivah. He asked that when his own time came, he should be buried next to Yossele zy"a. Till today the two kevorim stand side by side by the wall. We bring this as the mesorah that is said at the tziyun, not as a fact written in a sefer from that time. Your kvittel will be placed on the kever of Yossele the Holy Miser zy"a in the Remah Beis Hachaim in Krakow.
Historical background
According to the mesorah, Yossele zy"a lived in Krakow in the times of the Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a, who was rav there from 1643 until his histalkus in 1654. That was a dor after the Remu zy"a, in the same Beis Hachaim, and it was the years of and just after the gezeiros of Tach v'Tat, a terrible tzarah for Polish Jewry. Kazhimiezh was still a great kehillah, even in those hard years.
Before & after
Who came before
- The Remu zy"a — The earlier godol of Krakow; he rests in the same Beis Hachaim
Who came after
- The Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a — It is told that he asked to be buried next to Yossele zy"a; their tziyunim stand side by side by the wall
In his dor
- The Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a — According to the mesorah they lived in Krakow in the same years
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.
- Wikipedia: Yossele the Holy Miser (the mesorah of his hidden tzedakah and the kever next to the Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a in the Remah Beis Hachaim)
- Eli Valley, The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe (1999), pp. 336–337 (cited by Wikipedia for the Krakow mesorah)
- Joachim Jacobs, Houses of Life: Jewish Cemeteries of Europe (2008), p. 96 (the matzeivah beside the Tosefos Yom Tov zy"a)
- Archived English pages of globalkvittel.com (Wayback Machine, especially 2024-04-27 and 2025-10-30)
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