Looking at the world around him, Harav Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz saw many Jews who were observant but weak in their yiras Shamayim and passion for Yiddishkeit.
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When my grandfather (Milton Horvitz) died, the old yiden at the shul told my father (Ephraim Horvitz) that he should ensure his father's stone says that he was descended from the Shelah haKadosh.
This is the first that anyone in my immediate family had heard of the Shelah. I had been named Shelah, with that spelling, because my mother thought it was the Hebrew version of Sheila, which it isn't. When we learned about The Shelah, I knew the name was no accident.
I had been told when I was young that we are distant cousins of the Bostoner Rebbe so I believe the story about the descent is probably correct.
My great grandfather, Yossel, had been a Chassid, but his son Milton and my father were Modern Orthodox. My father knew Talmud but not Kabbalah. I myself am Conservative and have only been learning about Kabbalah for a few years (I'm 64). The name accident has always made me suspect I have a job to do. I'm a painter and I work with Jewish themes. A painting I did of the Shekhina ("Shabbos", see https://www.shelah-horvitz-art.com/workszoom/4707182/shabbos-when-the-veil-is-thin#/) is actually going next month to a museum in Massachusetts.
Hamodia version can be found at:
https://thinktorah.org/the-enduring-legacy-of-the-shelah-hakadosh/
I discuss the Shelah contributions to spreading Lurianic Kabbalah in the following lecture:
https://thinktorah.org/kabbalah-messianic-fervor-and-the-debacle-of-shabtai-tzvi/
Very interesting!
Thank you. His yahrzeit is tonight
Thank you for publishing this; it filled in many blanks.
When my grandfather (Milton Horvitz) died, the old yiden at the shul told my father (Ephraim Horvitz) that he should ensure his father's stone says that he was descended from the Shelah haKadosh.
This is the first that anyone in my immediate family had heard of the Shelah. I had been named Shelah, with that spelling, because my mother thought it was the Hebrew version of Sheila, which it isn't. When we learned about The Shelah, I knew the name was no accident.
I had been told when I was young that we are distant cousins of the Bostoner Rebbe so I believe the story about the descent is probably correct.
My great grandfather, Yossel, had been a Chassid, but his son Milton and my father were Modern Orthodox. My father knew Talmud but not Kabbalah. I myself am Conservative and have only been learning about Kabbalah for a few years (I'm 64). The name accident has always made me suspect I have a job to do. I'm a painter and I work with Jewish themes. A painting I did of the Shekhina ("Shabbos", see https://www.shelah-horvitz-art.com/workszoom/4707182/shabbos-when-the-veil-is-thin#/) is actually going next month to a museum in Massachusetts.
I hope to do work and to live worthy of the name.
Shalom Shelah,
You have some great yichus and the name as well!
The best way to do the work and live up to your name is to follow in your ancestors' legacy.
Perhaps study the Shelah's work?
Wishing you and your family a Chag Kasher V'Sameach!