In honor of the 115th Yahrtzeit of the Tal Chaim of Liska upcoming on 9 Iyar ( May 12-14)  a trip to Liska, Hungary has been announced. 

Liska is a revered name in Chasidishe circles from time immemorial and is universally regarded as one of the more prominent Hungarian Chasidish dynasties that appealed to the masses for close to two hundred years yet hailed by scholars for its sharp and vast Torah scholarship. 
Thousands of mispalelim visit the holy OHEL in Liska, where the revered Rebbes of Liska are interred; a focal point of visitors to Hungary and where thousands have merited yeshuos.

Although it is Rav Tzvi Hersh of Liska author Ach Pri Tevuah and Hayasher V’hatov that is world famous, his son in law and successor Rav Chaim of Liska author of Tal Chaim on sugyas Hashas was acknowledged as an extraordinary gaon even in the generation that he lived and a recognized poel yeshous. 

Although it is Rav Tzvi Hersh of Liska author Ach Pri Tevuah and Hayasher V’hatov that is world famous, his son in law and successor Rav Chaim of Liska author of Tal Chaim on sugyas Hashas was acknowledged as an extraordinary gaon even in the generation that he lived and a recognized poel yeshous. 

In fact, it was Sanzer Rov who documented the yichus of the Tal Chaim, upon his marriage to the daughter of the Ach Pri Tevuah, that the Tal Chaim is the 6th generation descendant from the Maharsha.

The Tal Chaim was best known for unswerving dedication to Torah learning, submerging his feet in cold water to keep himself awake and forgetting to eat for days at a time. “His whole life was Torah,” says his great-grandson, the current Liska Rebbe, Harav Tzvi Hersh Friedlander, shlita. “He looked at everything, including current events, with the perspective of Torah.”

His mind was so immersed in Torah learning that he did not know the value of money, and would need someone to safeguard his funds, so that he would not bestow the money he had been given carelessly. In fact, once when a person wanted to give him a pidyon, he extended a blue coin (of a lesser denomination), then realized his mistake and corrected himself, extending a red coin (of a higher denomination). The Tal Chaim enquired why the chassid chose to give him the red coin instead of the blue one. The person replied that the red one was more valuable. The Tal Chaim responded by saying that “he did not understand the government. After all, red symbolizes midas hadin, and blue, midas harachamim!”

The Tal Chaim’s hasmadah in Torah learning was legendary; every second was dedicated to the amkus of being mechadesh chiddushei Torah, coupled by extreme humility, to the point of limiting his accessibility.

An interesting anecdote  that highlights his hisbatlus is worth mentioning. A man who lived near Liska found himself in Munkatch and went to the Darkei Teshuvah, the second Munkatcher Rebbe, requesting a brachah. Upon inquiring where he was from, the Darkei Teshuvah asked the man why he hadn’t gone to see the Tal Chaim, who lived closer to him. He replied that the Tal Chaim rarely interrupts his Torah learning to see people and held himself unworthy of giving brachos. The Darkei Teshuvah told him that when he returns to Liska, he should go to the Liska Rav and relay, in the Darkei Teshuva’s name, that he should “open his doors to receive people and that he is worthy to be a poel yeshuos.”

The previous Mattersdorfer Rav, Rav Shmuel Ehrenfeld, once recalled that his father, Rav Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld, the Mattersdorfer Rav, used to quote in his daily shiurim from the sefer Tal Chaim U’Brachah and that he regularly sent his talmidim to the Tal Chaim. His respect for the Tal Chaim was so intense that he once escorted him, together with all his talmidim, to the edge of town, upon the conclusion of a visit.

Rav Menachem Mendel of Vizhnitz, the Tzemach Tzaddik, used to visit the Tal Chaim when he traveled to Hungary, and his grandson the Ahavas Yisrael of Vizhnitz wrote a warm haskamah on the Tal Chaim, writing “that although I personally did not know the Liska Rav, but my grandfather held him in high esteem.” 

Rav Tzvi Hersh of Liska, the Tal Chaim’s son and successor, once recalled that the Belzer Rav, Harav Yehoshua, to whom the Tal Chaim traveled upon the petirah of his father-in-law, secluded himself in private with his father for many hours, discussing the intricacies of Toras haKabbalah. 

The highlight of the trip will include davening at the Tal Chaim’s holy zion who is buried alongside his father-in-law the Ach Pri Tevuah in the ohel in Liska. The yahrtzeit seudah will take place at the newly restored site of the shul which includes its last remaining wall that was preserved and reinforced, complemented by the construction of a corresponding wall where the entrance to the shul once stood. 

Preceding the visit to Liska the group will also daven by the various tzadikim who are buried in the various towns of the Hungarian countryside. 

For additional information, please contact  [email protected] or call: 718-473-9867 x 8.