Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz—Zera Kodesh רבי נפתלי מרופשיץ — «זרע קודש»
of the "holy company" of Lizhensk; teacher of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz—through him the Lizhensk line came to Sanz
Son of the rabbi of Linsk, he came to Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk as a youth and entered his inner circle—what Chassidim call the "holy company." After Elimelech's death he learned under Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, the Maggid of Kozhnitz and the Seer of Lublin.
He kept his court in Ropczyce, in Galicia. He is remembered for his wit: he could say the most serious thing in the form of a joke, and the Chassidic collections are full of his replies. But his book too—Zera Kodesh, discourses on the Torah and the festivals—is among the most read in Galician Chassidism.
His chief disciple was Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz: through him the Ropshitz school became that of Sanz and Bobov. Rabbi Yosef Babad, author of the Minchat Chinuch, learned under him as well. He died on 11 Iyar 1827 in Lancut and is buried there; his sons continued the courts—in Dzikov and Melitz.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Zera Kodesh by Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz — his discourses on the Torah and the festivals
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Ropshitser, Naphtali Zevi Horowitz” — the years 1760–1827, the teachers, the students, death in Lancut
Basis: documents and evidence.