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R. Arye Leib Zivov son of R. Eliezer

Daugavpils / Dvinsk / Dinabug / Denenborg / Denabarg

His father1) was a dayan of the community of Mazir and a student of the well-known Hasid R. Yitzchak Aizik HaLevi Epstein, rabbi of Homel, known as R. Aizik Homiler.

Born approximately in 5570–71 (1810–1811).

He attended the well-known Hasid R. Baruch Mordechai Ettinger, rabbi of Bobruysk. He was attached to the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch, was ordained by him for halakhic rulings at age 18, and also by the great Chabad rabbis of that generation. He was also an emissary of the Tzemach Tzedek.

At age 17, in approximately 5587, he was accepted as rabbi in Smilavichy, and was called R. Leib Smilavicher. He was accepted as rabbinic decisor in the city of Homel, and in 5617, after the passing of the city's rabbi R. Yitzchak Aizik Homiler, he served as Av Beit Din there for a period.

He served as rabbi of Dvinsk for 23 years2) — from approximately 5625 (1865) until his passing on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5647 (23 May 1887), and here is his resting place. He sat on the rabbinical seat of Jewish communities for sixty uninterrupted years.

In Igrot Kodesh of the Tzemach Tzedek3) there is printed a letter from the Tzemach Tzedek to him, written by his son the Rebbe Maharyan of Nizhyn.

A responsum to him was printed in the responsa Zioni, vol. 2, section 40.4)

In the responsa Sha'arei De'ah5), section 435, a responsum to him was printed, and there (pp. 482 ff., appendix 3) two of his own responsa were printed.

A responsum from him was printed in the collection Yagdil Torah (New York), booklet 17, pp. 271 ff. In Torat Rabbenu Shmuel Salant, vol. 2, two responsa from him on matters of gittin were printed. In Migdal Oz, p. 40, his responsum on the division of synagogue property among a Hasidic congregation that had separated was printed.

His letters on the prohibition of eating salted fish and sprats on Passover were printed in the collection Zekhor LeAvraham 57626).

Approbations from him: Yosef Chen (Warsaw 5638), Ilma Rabati of Ramak (Lvov 5641), Matzav HaYashar, vol. 1 (Vilna 5641), Divrei Chaim (Vilna 5649), in his son's book Shivim Temarim, and in Sharvit HaZahav, vol. 1 (Vilna 5649). See also Shanah beShanah 5748, p. 384, his approbation for the book Ohel Mo'ed (which was not printed). See also Heikhal HaBe'sht, issue 39, p. 215.

In the responsa Meshiv Davar, vol. 4, section 26, it is written: “I agree with the opinion of the great rabbi, our teacher Leib, may he live, rabbinic decisor here, to permit this woman to the world, on condition that the Torah scholar R. Shaul Zeleg, may he live, will join with us.”

For a full account of him — Heikhal HaBe'sht, issue 39.

Latvia and Rabbis

1)
In the approbation of R. Arye Leib to his son's book Shivim Temarim, he signs his name as “son of Eliezer,” and not as appears in several places that his father's name was Elazar.
2)
HaZman newspaper, 12 Menachem Av 5647.
3)
Edition of 5773, p. 139.
4)
And see also there, section 31, clause 10, and section 32.
5)
Ohalei Shem Institute, 5772.
6)
Vol. 2, p. 1033, and his biography there, note 1. It should be noted that in Yagdil Torah and Migdal Oz, and also in the introduction to the responsa Zekher Yehuda (there, p. 9, and note 24), R. Yehoshua Mundshein writes that he served in the rabbinate in Bobruysk in the rabbinical court of R. Baruch Mordechai. But in Zekhor LeAvraham it is written that he attended R.B.M. (meaning he served in his court) but was not rabbi there.