Rogatchover Gaon **
The Rogatchover Gaon, Rabbi Yosef Rosen (1858-3 March 1936), also known by the name of his main work Tzafnath Paneach, was one of the prominent Talmudic scholars of the early 20th century, known as a "Gaon" (genius) because of his photographic memory and razor sharp mind.
Biography
He was born in Rogachev, now in Belarus, in a Hasidic family of Kapuster Hasidim, and was educated in the local cheder (Torah school for small children). His unusual capabilities were noticed at age eight, when he was sent to study with Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, then in Slutzk. He subsequently studied under Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Maharil Diskin) in Shklov. He then assumed the rabbinate of the Hasidic community in Dvinsk, where his non-Hasidic counterpart was Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk; and they served in parallel until the late 1920's.
Among those who received semicha (Rabbinic ordination) from him were, Rabbi Mordecai Savitsky of Boston; Rabbi Zvi Olshwang (1873-?) of Chicago a brother-in-law of Rabbi Shimon Shkop; Rabbi Avrohom Elye Plotkin, the author of Birurei Halachot (a copy of the actual semicha is included in that work); and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who later became the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.
The Rogatchover is remembered for his breadth of Torah knowledge and caustic wit. He did not suffer inadequacy lightly. He was similarly reputed to rarely quote any rabbinic authority after Maimonides, and avoided recent rabbinic works of the Achronim in favour of the Rishonim (those preceding the late 15th century). His responses to queries of Jewish law could be enigmatic and cryptic.
He died in Vienna in 1936 after unsuccessful surgery.
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