Among the significant yahrzeit observances during the Hebrew month of Iyar is that of  the yahrzeit of Rav Menachem Mendel of Riminov. Commemorated on the 19th of Iyar, Rav Menachem Mendel is generally  best known for having delivered Shabbos sermons on Parshat HaMan for 22 years, as well as he is  believed to have introduced the segulah (spiritual remedy) for parnassah (sustenance) of reciting Parshat HaMan  on the Tuesday of the week we read Parshat Beshalach (refer to Exodus 16:4-36) .

However, what is generally not known are the details pertaining to the Rav’s personal life and especially his marriage to his wife Rivka and that is the focus of this blog.

Threat of Divorce and Devotion at its Supreme Best

In the book The Torah Discourses of the Holy Tzaddik Reb Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, 1745-1815 [1]the translator Dov Levine details the demand of Rav Menachem Mendel’s father-in-law that his daughter Rivka (Rivkah) Torem obtain a divorce from R. Menachem Mendel when he saw that his son in law was completely detached from worldly matters and had no intention of concerning himself with earning a livelihood.  “When she refused to part from her husband, the young couple was expelled from the father-in-law’s house (where they resided in the early years of their marriage) and was forced to take up residence in a dilapidated shack located at the edge of town.”

Despite their years of abject poverty, and numerous sacrifices that Rivka made, she continued to support her husbands’ pursuit of Torah learning and his pursuit of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)