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R. Yehuda Leib son of R. Shlomo Zalkin

Daugavpils / Dvinsk / Dinabug / Denenborg / Denabarg

Known by the name R. Leib Batlan.

A student of the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch; colleague and friend of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch, and together with him studied in their youth at the beginning of winter 5563.1) According to another version, the Tzemach Tzedek was his student in his youth for about a quarter of a year.2)

He was rabbi in Vilkomir, district of Vilna, and in approximately 5578 (1818) was accepted as rabbi in Dvinsk. At first he served in the old part of the city, and afterward in the new and central area.

He served here in the rabbinate for about forty years, until his passing on 23 Kislev 5618 (10 December 1857), and here is his resting place.3)

Author of the responsa Zekher Yehuda (Berdichev 5649).

Approbations from him: Emek HaHalakha (Vilna 5606), She'erit Yaakov (Vilna 5644), and in Ginzei HaMelekh (manuscript), as brought below.

Voice of Lamentation

Judah and Israel cried out from every side —
Alas for the day of grief and disarray!
Judah spread his tent among the graves.
Knowledge of God and fear of the Lord, in hidden dwellings.
He arose to make straight paths and to move mountains;
With him came the book of battles at the gates.
The light of his righteousness shone over the land and its dwellers;
His words flowed like the sun at its height.
To recount the limits of his ways — there is no count;
From his coming in to his going out, in precious light.
Woe and lamentation — who will water the flocks?
A cry of breaking, for we have come to ruin.
Therefore shed tears like flowing waters;
His body returned to its dust, and his soul is among the upright.
This is the great Gaon, righteous man and Hasid,
Holy and pure — our teacher Yehuda Leib,
Son of our teacher R. Shlomo, may the memory of a righteous man be for a blessing, buried in good soil,
On Tuesday, 23 Kislev, the year 5618.
May his soul be bound in the bond of life.

Latvia and Rabbis

1)
Sefer HaToldot Admor Mohariatz, vol. 1, p. 140. Beit Rebbi.
2)
Sipurim Nora'im, p. 140 (Jerusalem, 5767).
3)
In Ishim veKehillot, pp. 394 ff., under the title “Geonim in the position of Av Beit Din in Dvinsk,” it is not mentioned at all that R.Y.L. Batlan was a Hasid his entire life. It also states that after his passing a division occurred in the city and the Chabad Hasidim separated from the Mitnagdim and formed their own congregation with their own rabbi, rabbinic decisor, and ritual slaughterer. But this is completely mistaken: the first rabbis were Hasidim, and even after the passing of R.Y.L. Batlan, a Hasidic rabbi was appointed (R. Feivel Rappaport, as below), and it was the Mitnagdim who separated from the Hasidim toward the end of his days — as R. Yehoshua Mundshein already wrote regarding this matter in the introduction to the responsa Zekher Yehuda (op. cit.).