Gershon Nof presented us recently with a full biography of Rabbi Yaakov David Willowski, known throughout the Torah world as Rabbi Yaakov David ben Zeev- the Ridbaz- the author of commentaries on the Jerusalem Talmud, of responsa and other works. Serving Jewish communities in various parts of the world, the Ridbaz was one of the most prominent rabbinic authorities of his time.
Gershon Nof, a well-known Torah scholar, has edited rabbinic anthologies, including the recently published collection of last wills of over 100 rabbis, Hasidic leaders and other Jewish personalities; he is a frequent contributor to religious publications both in Yiddish and in Hebrew. His Hebrew book on the Ridbaz, which he called Rannu LeYa’akov (see Jeremiah 31:6), is based on numerous sources and includes many little known facts about the Ridbaz’s life and greatness.
The Ridbaz was born in Kobrin, in the region of Grodno Russia, in 1845 or 1846. His father was a builder of ovens by trade. Despite his poverty, he hired at great cost, excellent teachers for his son. His son never attended a Yeshiva, nor is it known who his main teachers or educators were. He was seemingly influenced to some extent by the rabbi of Kobrin, Rabbi Meir Meirim, the author of a work on the Jerusalem Talmud.
In 1861, he married Miriam Bluma, the daughter of a Kobrin family. His father-in-law supported him for several years, during which he devoted himself entirely to the study of the Torah. He is said to have studied continuously for seven years, day and night with few breaks, during which period he mastered the entire Babylonian Talmud and its early commentaries as well as the Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat, which he knew by heart.
This devotion to Torah– forgoing sleep and skipping meals for the sake of study– was to be a characteristic of the Ridbaz throughout his life.
During a visit to Brest Litovsk he met Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Orenstein, the rabbi of the community who was greatly impressed by his wide erudition. Rabbi Orenstein, who many years later became Rabbi of Lvov, Galicia, was the first to spread Rabbi Yaakov David’s name and fame. He also searched for a rabbinic position suitable for the young man.
In 1868 Rabbi Yaakov David’s was chosen rabbi of Izballin, in the region of Grodno. It is related that during the long winter nights of his service in that townlet, he would go, soon after having eaten his evening meal, to study at the local Beth Medrash, remaining there throughout the night. When he felt drowsy, he would put his feet into cold water to drive away the sleepiness. It occasionally happened that when the first worshippers arrived for prayers early in the morning they found their young rabbi asleep over a tome of the Talmud. Reluctant to wake their rabbi, they would hold the prayer service in the corridor, praying in a low voice.
In 1876, Rabbi Yaakov David was chosen rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Bobruisk, White Russia. In that town there was also a Hassidic community led by Rabbi Shemariah Noah Shneersohn, a grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch. Rabbi Shemariah Noah also maintained a Yeshiva of his own in Bobruisk.
In 1882 Rabbi Yaakov David was appointed maggid of the community of Vilna. According to some, he was recommended to the position by a great scholar and an important member of the community, Rabbi Mattityahu Strashun, son of Rabbi Shmuel Strashun. Rabbi Mattityahu had come to know and admire Rabbi Yaakov David, who came to consult Rabbi Strashun’s large library.
Though Rabbi Yaakov David was quite successful in his new position, he left Vilna after a year and a half. His heavy schedule which required him to deliver sermons and funeral orations, did not leave him as much time as he desired for the study of Torah.
In 1883, he was chosen rabbi of Polotsk, in the Vitebsk region, and several years later as rabbi of Wylkowysk, in the Suwalki province He did not serve in the latter position for long, for the local authorities did not confirm his appointment because the rabbi had not taken the obligatory test in the Polish language.
In 1890 Rabbi Yaakov David was appointed rabbi of Slutsk in the Minsk region. Slutsk was an important community and prominent rabbis had served there. Rabbi Yaakov David’s immediate predecessor had been Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveichik, author of Beit HaLevi, who left Slutsk to become rabbi of Brest-Litovsk.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, March 7, 2003
(Continued from last week)
In addition to serving as chief rabbi of Chicago’s Orthodox congregations, the Ridbaz was also active in other parts of the U.S., strengthening religious observance and the study of Torah.
Thus he got in touch with a Jewish organization in New York, whose function it was to direct new immigrants to localities where they might find employment. In some of these places it was impossible for Sabbath observers to find work. Following the Ridbaz’s intervention, the officers of that organization promised that Sabbath observing new immigrants would be directed only in places where they could find employment without being forced to desecrate the Sabbath.
The Ridbaz, however, was not successful in implementing the reforms necessary to improve the Kashrut supervision, one of the goals he had set forth when he was chosen Chief Rabbi of Chicago. His failure to do so prompted him to refuse his salary and eventually to resign from his post.
In his foreword to his Nimmukei Ridbaz (sermons and commentary on Bereishit and Shemot, Chicago, 1904) in which he mentions some of his experiences in the Chicago rabbinate, he states “Should I not be able to carry out my plans with regard to strengthening the fear of the L-rd and the study of Torah in the community– what do I need a rabbinical post for? What do I need a salary for? I did not come to this country to earn a salary. I will sell my edition of the Jerusalem Talmud, and with G-d’s help, will go to live in the land of Israel. This is what I desire.”
He left the United States, and in the spring of 1905 he arrived in Palestine and settled in Safed.
Not long after his arrival there he delivered a public lecture that was attended by the city’s prominent rabbis and Talmudic scholars. His brilliant expositions and extraordinary wide erudition- he cited from memory entire pages of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud as well as Rashi’s commentary and Tosafot– greatly impressed all the listeners.
The Ridbaz loved the Land of Israel deeply and frequently visited Jewish settlements in the neighborhood of Safed. On one of these trips he suffered a sunstroke and became gravely ill. He was confined to his bed for nearly a year. Throughout this period the Jews of Safed prayed for his health– Raphael was added to his name– and generally took care of his needs. One man put his large, airy apartment at the Ridbaz’s disposal and he himself moved into a small dark flat. Another of Safed’s Jews stayed at his bedside day and night, washing and feeding him and attending to his needs. The Ridbaz’s condition kept improving, his memory returned to him slowly and he made a full recovery. One of his physicians, an English gentile who resided in Tiberias, called his recuperation a “miracle from heaven.”
Before his illness, the Ridbaz had conceived the idea of establishing a Yeshiva in Safed. He discussed the matter with some of Safed’s Jewish communal leaders and dignitaries and suggested that his son-in-law , Rabbi Yosef Konvitz, who was then serving as rabbi in Lithuania, be invited to direct the Yeshiva.
The festive opening ceremony of the Yeshiva took place a short while after the Ridbaz’s recovery. He was the first speaker at the event, and was followed by Rabbi Yosef Konvitz and Rabbi Yitzchak David Etrog, a young student of the Yeshiva who was only 14 years old.
Gershon Nof includes in his book testimonials of some of those who attended the ceremony. “The celebration went on late into the night and culminated with dancing,” we read. “It reached the high point when the Ridbaz himself joined the dancers, holding in his hands a volume of his edition of the Jerusalem Talmud. The celebrants formed a circle around the Ridbaz and accompanied his dancing with the clapping of hands.”
The Yeshiva, which was known as Yeshivat Torat Eretz Yisrael or as the “Yeshiva of the Ridbaz,” was attended by some of the brightest youngsters and young men of Safed. They studied both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud, and attended the lectures given by the Ridbaz and his son-in-law.
The young people of Safed became involved with the study of Torah, and the sweet tunes of Gemara study reverberated through the town’s streets. Every six months, there was a public examination of the Yeshiva’s students.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, March 21, 2003
The year 5649 (1888-1889) was a Sabbatical year. Leading rabbinic authorities in the land were asked by members of the newly established Jewish agricultural settlements in the Land of Israel whether they could work in their fields and orchards during the Shemitta.
Cessation of work would not only deprive hundreds of farmers of their livelihood but might also affect the economic situation of the entire nascent new Yishuv.
A number of prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yitzchak Elhanan Spektor of Kovno and Rabbi Yisrael Yehoshua Trunk of Kutno issued a “Hora’at Sha’a” (a one time) Hetter (permission) to work the lands that year if their ownership was transferred to non-Jews.
Other rabbinic authorities among them Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik and Rabbi Shemuel Salant of Jerusalem, did not agree with this decision.
Many availed themselves of this Hetter but there were farmers who did not want to rely on it.
The same situation prevailed when the next two Sabbatical years 5656 (1895-1896) and 5663 (1902-1903) came around.
While still in Russia, the Ridbaz had opposed the Hetter to work the land during the Sabbatical years and had collected money to help the farmers who observed the laws of Shemitta and advocated the strict observance of the laws of the Sabbatical year.
In a treatise called Kuntres HaSHemitta, which he published in Jerusalem on the eve of the Sabbatical year of 5670 (1909-1910), he maintained that the Hetter was not acceptable and that its continued use would ultimately result in the disappearance of the laws of Shemitta.
In the foreword to his treatise he stated, inter alia, that he was publishing it in the hope of inducing G-d fearing people to financially support farmers who observed the laws of the Sabbatical year.
“I have spoken with some of the settlers,” he wrote, “And they told me that they were ready to observe the Shemitta if they received some financial assistance.”
He further noted that now that he was living in the Land of Israel, he felt particularly distressed and pained.
“How can we show our faces to the Holy Land which pleads with us, ‘Do not desecrate me in the Sabbatical year?’ In the merit of this the L-rd will redeem you. I will rejoice together with you and you will find with me the peace and perfect rest you are longing for.”
At the end of the foreword the Ridbaz mentioned that he had bought a small plot of land [in Ein Zeitin] near Safed. He had acquired it “for himself and for the entire people of Israel, dispersed all over the world so we would all be able to fulfill in the coming year [a Sabbatical year] the command of the Torah, ‘And the land will observe a Sabbath to G-d.’
“All Israel will be privileged to observe this Mitzva. And G-d in heaven will have mercy on His Torah, on His people and on His land, will build the city of Jerusalem, erect therein His Temple and gather into our country the dispersal of our people from the four corners of the earth, speedily in our days.”
The Ridbaz thus expresses his conviction that Israel be be redeemed from exile in the merit of observing the Shemitta. Whenever he mentions places that use the Hetter, desecrating the Shemitta year, he warns of imminent disaster.
Wasn’t it because of the non-observance of the laws of the Sabbatical year that we were driven into exile?
The Ridbaz insisted that the Hetter be ignored and that the laws of Shemitta be observed properly. He called upon Jews everywhere to financially support true Shemitta observers.
He appointed Rabbi Nahum Weidenfeld of Dabrowa, Galica, to urge rabbis to organize collections for Shemitta observers.
Rabbi Nahum Weidenfeld visited the Land of Israel in 1908 in matters concerning the distribution of Haluka funds to the Galician Kollel.”
In Safed he met the Ridbaz who spoke to him of the necessity to induce Jewish agricultural settlements to properly observe the forthcoming Sabbatical year (5670) and to raise funds for Shemitta observers.
He asked Rabbi Weidenfeld to assist him by rallying to this cause the rabbis of his country and of other countries.
When Rabbi Weidenfeld claimed that he was not worthy of such a task the Ridbaz convinced him, with tears in his eyes, to do his part in order to prevent desecration of the Sabbath of the Land.
Rabbi Weidenfeld related all this in a special supplement devoted to raising money for Shemitta observers, which was printed in 1910 in the Torah journal VaYelaket Yosef, published in Bonyhad, Hungary.
The supplement featured appeals for funds by Rabbi Weidenfeld and the Ridbaz, as well as letters of Hasidic leaders and rabbis of various localities addressed to Rabbi Weidenfeld praising the endeavors to give financial help to Shemitta observers and promising their collaboration.
The writers of the letters included Rabbi Dov Aryeh Ritter, Rotterdam; Rabbi Akiva Schreiber, Pressburg, Rabbi Mendel Steinberg, Brody; and Rabbi Yitzhak Danzig Petersburg.
Contributions to the fund for Shemitta observers were sent to Rabbi Weidenfeld, who in turn transmitted them to Rabbi Hayyim Berlin head of the Vaad HaShemitta in Jerusalem
The Ridbaz was active in that matter not only in the Land of Israel. During the Shemitta year of 5670 he visited Europe.
In London he called among others, upon the directors of the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA) which administered the agricultural settlements established in the Land of Israel by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. The Ridbaz elicited from them the promise that no Shemitta observer would be forced to work the land during the Sabbatical year.
Gershon Nof concludes the chapter on the Ridbaz’s struggle for the observance of Shemitta with the note that if there are nowadays in the Land of Israel, many who do not rely on the Hetter for the Sabbatical year, this is at least partly due to the activities of the Ridbaz.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, March 28, 2003
(Continued from last week)
The Ridbaz, though residing in Safed, kept in close touch with Jerusalem’s leading rabbis, especially with the Beth Va’ad LaHakhmim, which had been established by prominent rabbis for the purpose of unitng Torah scholars in seeking solutions to urgent Halakhic problems. The institute also dealt with the commandments dependent of the Land of Israel, a field the Ridbaz was particularly interested in.
In 1911, the institute had to close because of financial difficulties. Thanks to the endeavors of the Ridbaz it was soon reopened, but had to close again after the outbreak of World War I.
Toward the end of his life, the Ridbaz was planning to bring to the Land of Israel brilliant young Torah scholars from the Diaspora in order to train them in the elucidation and interpretation of the Gaon of Vilna’s notes on various works. On account of the Ridbaz’s death the project was not realized.
In 1913 the Ridbaz moved to Ein Zeitim, near Safed. In the summer of that year he fell ill When the illness progressed, he was moved to the home of his son-in-law, Rabbi Joseph Konwitz, in Safed. Friends of the Ridbaz in Jerusalem sent Dr. Moshe Wallach, the founder and director of the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem to attend to him. Dr. Wallach immediately recognized the Ridbaz’s serious condition and did not leave his bedside for a moment.
On Rosh Hashana the Ridbaz prayed the evening prayer in bed.ing, Afterward he made Kiddush in the presence of his family and students. At three o’clock in the morning he returned his soul to his Maker. At four o’clock, Safed’s Jews were awoken to prepare for the funeral fo the Ridbaz. Members of the Hevra Kaddish went to the old cemetery to arrange for the digging of a grave by a non Jew. To their surprse they discovered a ready-made grave not far from the tombs of Rabbi Yosef Caro and the Arai (Rabbi Yitzchak Ashenazi Luria). The Ridbaz’s students carried his body from his home to the Yeshiva. From there the Jews of Safed carried him to the cemetery. Only those who immersed themselves in a Mikveh were permitted to touch the body. At the cemetery the body was immersed in the nearby Mikveh of the Ari, as is the custom in Safed. When the body was lowered into the grave, Dr. Wallach said a few words: “Here are buried the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud, a treasure of Torah and awe of the L-rd.”
On that day the morning prayers in all the synagogues of Safed started at ten o’clock. On the fast of Gedaliah the Ridbaz was eulogized in the Alshekh Synagogue in Safed’s Old City. After the completion of the Sheloshim were was a eulogy at the Yeshiva, attended by a very large crowd.
The first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Issac Herzog received his ordination from the Ridbaz. The two met in 1910 in England, when the Ridbaz came to enlist financial support for those who were observing the Shemittah in the Land of Israel. Impressed by Herzog’s wide erudition, the Ridbaz ordained him as rabbi.
Gershon Nof reproduces in his book a letter he received from the son of Chief Rabbi Herzog, the late Chaim Herzog, President of the State of Israel:
My father received ordination as a rabbi from the Ridbaz early in this [the 20th] century.”
“My father accompanied the Ridbaz on his travels in England, and the Ridbaz constantly examined him orally.
“On Rosh Hashana of the year 5674, on the eve of World War I, my father was staying with my grandfather, Rabbi Joel Herzog in Paris. Around midnight, my father started shouting in his sleep. My grandfather ran to him. My father awoke, bathed in sweat and related that the Ridbaz, dressed in white and donning a Tallit, had appeared to him in a dream, saying “Israel is in Distress.
“After Rosh Hashana a Jewish newspaper framed in black carried the news that the Ridbaz had died on the first night of Rosh Hashana.”
[Rabbi Herzog named his second son, Rabbi Jacob David Herzog — who served as director general of the Office of the Prime Minister and as Israel’s Ambassador to Canada who who died suddenly before assuming the post of Chief Rabbi of Great Britain– for the Ridbaz.]
The Ridbaz and Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook — who was 20 years younger than the Ridbaz and had become rabbi of Jaffa in 1904 were great friends and admired each other. Their differences of opinion regarding the Hetter to work the land in the Shemitta year in no way weakened the strong bond of love between them.
ceds in his book passages of letters in which Rabbi Kook bewails the great calamity that had befallen our people with the death of the “Tzaddik and glory of the generation, the Gaon R. Ridbaz, zt”l.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 4, 2003
(Continued from last week)
One chapter in Gershon Nof’s book about the Ridbaz lists 32 rabbis who were either students of the Ridbaz or were ordained by him.
This list of rabbis based on various sources is in addition to the 14 students sent by the “Alter of Slobodka” to serve as the nucleus of the Yeshiva that the Ridbaz wanted to establish in Slutsk, and who are all mentioned by name in Nof’s chapter on the Ridbaz’s activities in Slutsk.
One of those listed among the 32 rabbis is Rabbi Nahman Shlomo Greenspan. He was the author of Pilpulah Shel Torah (1935), Mishpat Am HaAretz (1946) and Melekhet Mahashevet (1955), which carried an approbation by the Ridbaz written in 1905. He also contributed to the Torah journals Sha’arei Torah, Otzar HaHaayyim and others.
The late Rabbi Greenspan was for many years a Rosh Yeshiva at the Etz Hayyim Yeshiva in London. The writer of these lines was one of his students. Rabbi Greenspan often spoke of the Ridbaz and once told me the following:
After the Ridbaz settled in Safed, he visited the ruins of the Jewish fortress of Jotapata (Yodfat in Hebrew) which, during the war with Rome, was the scene of heavy fighting. Yodfat fell to Vespasian’s legions in the summer of 67 C.E. after 47 days of siege and fighting. Josephus Flavius, who commanded the fortress describes in great detail in the Wars of the Jews the siege and battles for Yodfat. According to him, nearly 40,000 Jews died there.
The Ridbaz was greatly moved by the sight of the place where thousands of Jews had fought and died for their people and their land. He looked forward to visiting there again and again to see the remnants of the fortress, the silent witnessess of the great battles. But afraid that becoming too familiar with the place would prevent him from fully appreciating its sanctity, he decided to visit there only once in a while.
[Zev Vilnay writes in his Ariel (Encyclopedia for the Knowledge of the Land of Israel in Hebrew) that the Jews of Safed used to identify Yodfat with the remnants of the large fortress situated on the top of the mountain around which their city was built. This mountain too had been the scene of fighting during the Jew’ war with Rome. I have no way of knowing whether the Ridbaz, when speaking of his visits to Yodfat, had in mind the original site (referred to as “old Yodfat,” see Arakhin 9:6) or the site identified as such by the Jews of Safed].
I mentioned that Rabbi Greenspan’s Melekhet Mahashevet included an approbation by the Ridbaz. In the foreword to his book, Gershon Nof states that he had intended to provide his readers with a list of books that included approbations by the Ridbaz, but circumstances did not permit him to do so. Indeed, the approbation found in Melehket Mahashevet seems to be the only approbation by the Ridbaz mentioned in Nof’s book. [There is perhaps a misprint in that approbation. It was given in Europe, possibly in Antwerp– though it refers to the recipient as “from Warsaw”– where Rabbi Greenspan resided a number of years, when the Ridbaz was making his way, from the U.S. to the Land of Israel. It is dated: “The 29th day of the Omer in the year 5665/1905.” The Ridbaz arrived in Safed, according to Nof, on the 17th of Iyyar 5665/1905 (the 32nd day of the Omer. How could he have made his way from Northern Europe to Safed in a few days?]
Gershon Nof will certainly in the near future, publish additions to his book as well as a list of books which carry approbations by the Ridbaz. May I mention here three such volumes: Mahazeh Einayim (Warsaw, 1902) by Rabbi Elyakum Getzil Levitan; Peri Yehezkel (Jerusalem, 1908) by Rabbi Shimeon Sivitz(the author served as rabbi in Pittsburgh, PA, and the Ridbaz stayed with him during his visit to the U.S.); Menachem Meshiv Nefesh (three volumes, 1900-1907) by R. Menachem Monish Heilprin. The approbations of the last two booksw ere written by the Ridbaz after he had settled in the Land of Israel.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 11, 2003
(Conclusion)
Other chapters of the book include “Selections from Nimukei Ridbaz on Bereshit and Shemot, ” “Letters,” “Stories told by the Ridbaz” and “Anecdotes.”
Following are two of the latter:
A synagogue hired a Hazzan for the High Holidays and signed a contract with him. Some times later, another synagogue offered the Hazzan better conditions. The Hazzan was about to break the contract with the first when the leaders called him to a Din Torah before the Ridbaz.
“Do you regard youself as a Hazzan or as a Ba’al Tefillah?” the Ridbaz asked him.
“I am a Ba’al Tefillah,” the man answered.
“If so, you must lead the people of the first synagogue in prayer,” the Ridbaz decided. He explained his decision: “A Hazzan often repeats words (in the prayers). At times he says them twice, at times he he even says them three times. A Ba’al Tefillah says his words once and that’s it.”
A man who heard a eulogy by the Ridbaz asked him, “You are said to be a good speaker. How is it that your words did not elicit any tears from those who listenend to you?” The Ridbaz replied, “I am a master at opening the tap. But what can I do if the pipes (the tearducts) are empty?”
Gershon Nof reproduced in his book the Ridbaz’s last will in its enttirety.
The Ridbaz asked his sons that they study a Daf Gemara on the day they say Kaddish for him. If for some reason they did not study a Daf Gemara, they should not say Kaddish for him on that day. “You will not bring repose to my soul by reciting Kaddish without having studied a Daf Gemara on that day. Beware of that,” he wrote in his will.
He requested his son Shelomo Betzalel to study during the first 12 months after his death the Order of Zera’im of the Jerusalem Talmud with his commentary, “Ridbaz” and at least once a week delve into “Tosefot HaRid” (the Ridbaz had written two commentaries on the Jerusalem Talmud: an easy commentary in the manner of Rashi called Ridbaz and a deeper commentary called Tosefot HaRid). The Ridbaz also requested his two sons-in-law, Rabbi Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky and Rabbi Yosef Konvitz, and his son Aharon Yitzhak, to study during these 12 months the Orders of Mo’ed, Nashim and Nezikin of the Yerushalmi, respectively, in the same manner.
The Ridbaz called upon his sons and sons-in-law to stay away from the new method of Talmud study which had come forth in recent years from Lithuania and which had been nicknaed “chemistry.” (The Ridbaz was referring to the analytical approach to Talmud introduced by Rabbi Hayyim Soloveichik of Brisk. G. Nof remarks that we do not know the reason for the Ridbaz’s opposition to this method of study which was eventually adopted in all Lithuanian Yeshivot.)
Nof’s book which features a number of photogrpahs and facsimiles, contains several appendixes. They include, inter alia, the Ridbaz’s Kuntress HaShemittah, parts of his forewords to Nimukei Ridbaz and to his responsa Beit Ridbaz, forewords to other books of his and several pages of Ephraim Eisitzky’s autobiogrpahy, Eleh Toldot Adam. Lisitzky a famous American Heberew poet had studied in his youth in the Ridbaz’s Yeshiva in Slutsk before he emigrated to the U.S. and the Ridbaz met him in Boston during his first visit to the U.S. He was angry and worried about the youngster who had left his Yeshiva and gone to a country where there was no Torah.
In the foreword to his volume, Gershon Nof expresses his belief that despite the difficulties he encountered in his search for material on the life of the Ridbaz, he was able to present the readers with “a clear portrait” of the personlity of the Ridbaz. Nof’s beautifully written and well researched volume is indeed a very valuable addition to our biographical literature about Gedolei Yisrael.
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 25, 2003