10 Elul 5780

10 Elul 5780 AM

Today, 345 years ago, in the year 1675, R’ Model Ries from Vienna passed away in Berlin.

Shul in Berlin

Rabbi Mordechai Model Ries was a member of the famous Öttingen family.  He was Rav in the community of Schnaittach [a market town in Middle Franconia, Germany].  Thereafter he was Dayan in Vienna.  At the infamous expulsion from Vienne in 1670, he established the Jewish kehillah in Berlin, where a great part of the Vienna community settled.  R’ Model was also active there, in acquiring grounds for a Jewish burial site.

R’ Model was a paraplegic.  The local Kürfürst expressed himself about R’ Model, “Would he have had working legs, as is his mind, one wouldn’t find a person like him in the whole country!”

Source: LeToledos HeKehilos BePolin, page 77