 Dov Berish was born in Hrimlov, Galicia (now Ukraine) on 5 January 1881 (5 Shvat 5641 in the Jewish calendar) to his father Jacob 'Yekele' Weidenfeld, rabbi of the town and author of the responsa "Kochav miYaakov".With Reb Yekele's death shortly before Beirish's Bar Mitzvah, the delicate task of raising a new prodigy fell to his widow – herself renowned for her genius and wit (she wrote a great number of her husband's responsa on dictation) and to her two older sons