KAZIMIERZ

KAZIMIERZ (Kuzhmir), ḥasidic dynasty, especially known for their development of ḥasidic melody. Its founder, EZEKIEL BEN ẒEVI-HIRSCH TAUB OF KAZIMIERZ (d. 1856), was the disciple of Jacob Isaac ha-Ḥozeh of Lublin and of other ḥasidic leaders. He began as a merchant in his home town of Plonsk, and eventually settled in Kazimierz, where he established himself as a ẓaddik. He became celebrated for his musical gifts, and composed numerous ḥasidic melodies characterized by joyful lyricism. He used to say: "I do not feel the delight of Sabbath without a new melody." His sermons were collected in Neḥmad mi-Zahav (1909). DAVID ẒEVI OF NEUSTADT (d. 1882) Ezekiel's eldest son, and one of the outstanding disciples of Menahem Mendel Morgenstern of Kotsk, founded the ḥasidic dynasty of Yablonov. His sermons are collected in Ḥemdat Dodo (1930). His grandson EZEKIEL OF YABLONOV founded the Naḥalat Ya'akov society in 1924, and in the following year settled in Ereẓ Israel at the head of a group of Ḥasidim. They established an agricultural settlement, Naḥalat Ya'akov, at the western approaches to the Jezreel Valley (later part of Kefar Ḥasidim ). SAMUEL ELIJAH TAUB OF ZWOLEN (d. 1888), also a son of Ezekiel, like his father had musical gifts, but as a ẓaddik suppressed this bent and led the prayers only on rare occasions. He said: "In every melody there is a soul, and a spirit is breathed into it by the singer-creator; within the melody there is both youth and old age; it is like a living being, and therefore whoever subtracts a note from or adds to it is as though he harms, as it were, the 248 organs of the human body." His son, MOSES AARON TAUB OF NOWY DWOR (d. 1918), succeeded his father, first at Zwolen and later at Nowy Dwor near Warsaw. ḤAYYIM JERAHMEEL TAUB (d. 1942), son of Moses Aaron, lived in Zwolen, Mlawa, and finally Warsaw; he headed a ḥasidic community and composed ḥasidic melodies. He perished in treblinka . ELEAZAR SOLOMON BEN EPHRAIM TAUB (d. 1938), of Wolomin, the grandson of the first Ezekiel, moved to Warsaw during World War I. He also possessed musical gifts. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M.S. Geshuri, Neginah ve-Ḥasidut (1952). (Avraham Rubinstein)