About Us
Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel was founded in 1970 as the brainchild of Chossid and Askan R’ Shabsi Frankel זצ״ל, son-in-law of the illustrious Rav of Krakow, R’ Yosef Nechemiah Kornitzer זצ״ל. R’ Shabsi’s life was marked by chesed and service to Klal Yisroel. Upon its founding, Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel embarked upon an overwhelming and revolutionary project, producing the most accurate version of the Rambam’s classic work the Mishnah Torah, and providing Klal Yisroel with an invaluable and previously unheard of resource, the “Mafteach”. The “Mafteach” is a cross-referencing index of any mention of the Rambam, or it’s “Nosei Keilim”, in thousands of ancient and contemporary seforim.
Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel published the first volume of the Frankel Rambam in 1975. It was welcomed by the entire Torah world with great enthusiasm. In the following three decades, many of Eretz Yisroel’s greatest “talmidei chachamim” invested of their invaluable time and talents in producing the remaining thirteen volumes of the Mishnah Torah. R’ Shabsi זצ״ל dedicated and spent most of his vast fortune for this project, and left no stone unturned in the quest to ensure the utmost accuracy of the Frankel Rambam.
Libraries and archives across the globe were combed for the earliest manuscripts of the Mishnah Torah and its Pirushim, in order to return the Rambam’s works as well as all the Pirushim to their original texts. This landmark project was completed in 2008. The occasion was celebrated with a “siyum” in Bnei Brak, attended by many of our Gedolim, marking this momentous occasion and paying tribute to R’ Shabsi זצ״ל and his far-reaching vision. His legacy has been forever ensconced in the hearts and minds of Torah scholars throughout the world. “Yehi Zichro Boruch”.
Today, Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel has expanded to include other works, and continues to further this extraordinary vision. Among the institute’s more recent projects are the Hagadah Shel Pesach (2010), as well as the continuous project of the “Mafteach” on Shas – Raza D’Shabsi. Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel remains committed to its mission of enhancing Torah study by making unique sefarim available to Klal Yisroel.