Mnachem (Mendel) HaKohen Risikoff (1866–July 28, 1960), was an orthodox rabbi in Russia and the United States, and a prolific author of scholarly works, written in Hebrew.Portions of his book, HaKohanim vHaLeviim (The Priests and the Levites), Shulsinger Bros. Linotyping & Publishing Co., 1930, were written in Yiddish, perhaps because the work was in part a call for repentance, and in Yiddish could reach a larger audience than the scholars who understood Hebrew. (1930 was more than a decade before the establishment of the modern State of Israel and therefore the reintroduction and usage of Hebrew as a language beyond the scholarly realm or small groups of Israeli settlers was not yet widespread.) The one book that included English was Palgei Shemen that included the FDR letter and Risikoff's response, described in the article. Risikoff used a highly stylized and symbolic pen-name, יאמהדנונחהים, made up of the Hebrew letters of his first name, the Hebrew word for Lord, and the Tetragrammaton, one of Judaism's terms for God. It is not clear whether this pen name was used in conversation, or whether it was used only in his writings.
Life and work Risikoff, the son of well-known Rosh yeshiva (Talmudic Academy Dean) Rabbi Zvi Yosef Resnick, was born in Zhetel,Pinkas Zetel: A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Zetel, Baruch Kaplinski (editor), Zetel Association in Israel (Publisher), Tel Aviv, 1957, 229 later studying in yeshivot, academies, in Volozhin and Vilna, where he received semikhah (rabbinic ordination) at the age of 17 from a number of well-known rabbis: Yosef Shlupfer, from Slonim; Avraham DovBer HaKohen Shapira, from Riga; Shlomo HaKohen, author of Binyan Shlomo, from Vilna;Dorot HaAchronim, Ben-Zion Eisenstadt, A. H. Rozenberg (publisher),1915, 335., Katriel Nathan, Av Beit Din of Augustów; and Eliyahu Adran, of Grajewo; with other rabbis later adding their ordination as well.Ohalei Shem, S. Gottlieb, Pinsk, 1912, 297-298.
In 1895, after serving as a rabbi in a small town in Lithuania, he was appointed rabbi of Kazan. He emigrated to the United States in 1906, following anti-Jewish riots in that area, serving as rabbi in a number of synagogues in Brooklyn, including Ohev Shalom, in Brownsville;Yizkor-Book Suwalk, Berl Kahan (editor), The Suwalk & Vicinity Relief Committee of New York (publisher), 1961, 164 Keter Israel; Beth Ha-Knesseth Adath B'Nai Israel,AJC Archives, Jewish National Organizations in the United States, 1919-1920. also referred to as Williamsburg's Moore Street Congregation;Encyclopedia Judaica, Decennial Book(1973-82), Keter Publishing House, 1982, 523 and finally, Dibre Mnachem, a congregation named after the first book Risikoff published after moving to the United States, located in the area now known as Bedford-Stuyvesant, on one floor of the building where he lived for many years, until his death in 1960.Brooklyn Eagle, Nov 21, 1951, includes an article and photo of "90-year old senior rabbi Mnachem Risikoff" and his son, Rabbi Leon Risikoff, assembling Torah scrolls to be taken out of the building (691 Lafayette Ave., in Bedford-Stuyvesant) in case the fire in the nearby warehouse, on Kosciusko St, spread to endanger the synagogue building itself. (Photo on file as part of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection.)
His stationery listed him as רב ואב״ד לאגודת הקהלות דברוקלין -- "Rabbi of the Orthodoctical Congregations of Brooklyn."VirtualJudaica.com. In addition, he served as the Recording Secretary of the Knesseth HaRabonim HaOrthdoksim dAmerica vCanada, the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis of America and Canada.Kevarim of Tzadikim in North America, 2008.
Risikoff was a frequent contributor to The Degel Israel Torah Journal,The Degel Israel Torah Journal: A Monthly Journal for Strengthening Torah and Judaism, originally published by Degel HaRabbonim, collated and republished by American Jewish Legacy Torah Classics Library, New York, 2002. Most articles in this journal were written in Yiddish, although the introduction to the bound collection states that "Some essays and reviews were penned in Hebrew." and the author of numerous works on Halakha and Aggadah, Jewish law and Jewish lore; Biblical commentaries; Divrei Torah (sermons and homiletical writings); and responsa, including Shaarei Zevah (1913), dealing with the laws of kashrut and shechita; Shaarei Shamayim (1937), a commentary on the Jewish legal compilation, the Shulchan Aruch; and Torat HaKohanim (1948), the laws pertaining to Kohanim,Ha Kohanim vHaLeviim, Mnachem Resnick, 1940. The status of kehuna -- belonging to the Priestly tribe -- was important to both Resnick and his son, Risikoff, but because of a sense of responsibility, not pride, and in this book of Risikoff's, he recalls how his father taught that it was important to have a sense of humility, and avoid actions or words based on pride or the desire for notoriety. He writes that his father did not even want him to relate stories about him that might be interpreted as praise unless there was some musar, ethical teaching, that could be derived from the story. So, for example, Risikoff relates in this book how once there was a large fire in Slonim, when his father lived there -- and many people in the town, including other Kohanim, were bringing their belongings to the cemetery, which was located in one of the safe areas -- but his father, because Kohanim were prohibited (with some few exceptions) from entering cemeteries, refused to do so, saying it was better to lose all their belongings than to go to the cemetery. Jewish priests, the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, a group which included Risikoff himself.This lineage is passed from father to son, and is often indicated by the term, "HaKohen", in the individual's name, as it was for Risikoff and his father, Zvi Yosef HaKohen Resnick. This latter work included explanations and commentaries on the rituals still performed by kohanim today, including pidyon haben (Redemption of the First Born), and birkat kohanim (the Priestly Blessing). Additionally, after explaining the laws and customs regarding such rituals, he added homiletical commentaries. For example, he explained that the mitzvah of Brit milah (circumcision) tied a new-born baby to the covenant of faith, but the combination of circumcision and pidyon haben was like a double knot. Further, because not all families qualified for the ceremony of pidyon haben on their own, all Jews could participate in the commandment by attending the ritual and celebrating the happiness of others.
However, the book, Torat Hakohanim, also included instruction on priestly responsibilities only applicable during the existence of the Jerusalem Temple, because of his fervent belief that redemption would come, and the Temple would be rebuilt. In the meantime, he believed that studying the laws served as a substitute for carrying out the duties, and would bring the coming of the Messiah closer.Risikoff, "Petach Sha'ar," in "Litutei Dinim: Torar HaKohanim ve'avodat Beit Hamikdash veHakorbanot," New York, Moinester:1945, pp5-10, quoted in Gershon Greenberg, "Kristallnacht: The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theological Response," p167 and footnote 45.
Risikoff's strong mystical beliefs, in addition to his command of legal sources, was evident in his frequent references to kabbalah and Hassidic masters, like the Baal Shem Tov. His link to Jewish mysticism was also manifest in his belief in the power of language, numbers, and words, sometimes writing prayers or sections of his works using words whose initial letters spelled out his own name,Shaaarei Ratzon, page 26, using his first name, Mnachem, and Palgei Shemen, page 7, using his first name, Mnachem, in one portion, and his full name, Mnachem HaKohen Risikoff, in another. the name of God,Torat HaKohanim, page iv. or even the letters used to indicate the Jewish year.HaKohanim vHaLeviim, page 20. His book, Palgei Shemen, includes a congratulatory letter he received on the occasion of his fiftieth wedding anniversary from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his response, in which he attributes meaning to each of the President's three names and three initials. For example, one of the explanations he offers for "FDR" was friend (F) to both democrats (D) and republicans (R).
Many of his writings included endorsements not only from some of the leading rabbis in the United States, but also in Jerusalem, including Tzvi Pesach Frank, and Abraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the pre-Israel British Mandate of Palestine.
Risikoff's views regarding the agunah Risikoff's encyclopedic grasp of Jewish sources and his commitment to orthodox Judaism were so well respected that he could be a strong voice for discussions of innovative solutions to modern problems and challenges facing Jewish law. One key example was his proposal for enhanced authority of the modern Beth din, rabbinical court, to help in situations such as the Agunah, a woman whose husband had left her without granting her a Get, the religious divorce decree that would allow her to remarry.
In his writings, he advanced the idea, even before the establishment of the modern State of Israel, that some solution might be found in a worldwide Jewish recognition of the special authority of the Jerusalem Beth-Din. He introduced the idea, at least as one worthy of serious discussion within the realm of Halakhah, Jewish law, that the groom could declare that he was not only marrying the bride in accordance with "the laws of Moses and Israel" (kedat Mosheh weYisrael) the normal formulaic wording for a Jewish ceremony, but also, "in accordance with the Great Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem" (ukhdat Bet Din HaGadol biYerushalayim), so that the court could then step in to help a woman whose husband's actions violated the intrinsic meaning of the covenant of marriage, including that meaning as interpreted and understood by the court—declaring, in essence, that the marriage never took place, or was retroactively annulled. Similar ideas would be discussed by other orthodox thinkers after Israel's creation in 1948, but Risikoff was clearly ahead of his time—as one writer put it, writing "in apparent anticipation of future events"Divorce in Jewish Law and Life, Irwin Haut, Sepher-Hermon Press, 1983, 97, Vol V in the series, Studies in Jewish Jurisprudence, Edward Gershfield: also discusses his arguments in favor of helping the Agunah and strengthening the position of the modern Beth Din. This description of Risikoff's position is quoted based on an earlier secondary source: A. Freimann, Seder Kiddushin V'Nisuin, Mossad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem: 1964 (Hebrew).—in terms of such thinking.The Manchester Analysis: Draft Final Report of the Agunah Research Unit, University of Manchester, England, July 2009, pages 91, 155, 162, 163, 174, 180.] This work references Risikoff's book, Shaarei Shamayim (New York, 1937), which includes both his arguments for enhanced recognition of the court in general, and reliance on it -- through a creative revision of the traditional words recited by a groom during a Jewish marriage ceremony -- in the case of the Agunah, in particular.
An alternative approach to the problem, also introduced by Risikoff as a theoretical possibility worthy of halakhic discussion, was the reintroduction of the ancient institution of Pilegesh, an alternative category to formal marriage (and one that would not have the same requirements for a Get upon the dissolution of the relationship).Between Civil and Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah in American Society, Irving Breitowitz, Greenwood Press, 1993. By coincidence, Breitowitz's book was reviewed by Risikoff's grandson, Rabbi Steven Resnicoff, in Jewish Action, Winter 1994, Vol. 55, No. 2.
Risikoff's responses to the Holocaust