Isser Zalman Meltzer

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Rabbi
Isser Zalman Meltzer
איסר זלמן מלצר‎
Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer
Personal
BornFebruary 6, 1870
Mir, Minsk Governorate
DiedNovember 17, 1953(1953-11-17) (aged 83)
Jerusalem
ReligionJudaism
SpouseBeila Hinda
DenominationOrthodox
PositionRosh Yeshiva
YeshivaEtz Chaim Yeshiva
BuriedHar HaMenuchot cemetery, Jerusalem

Isser Zalman Meltzer (Hebrew: איסר זלמן מלצר) (February 6, 1870 – November 17, 1953),[1] was a Jewish rabbi, rosh yeshiva and posek. He was known as the "Even HaEzel", after the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah.

Early life[edit]

Isser Zalman Meltzer was born on 5 Adar 5630 (February 6, 1870) in the city of Mir,[2] in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Republic of Belarus) to Rabbi Baruch Peretz and Miriam Reisel Meltzer.[3] From the age of 10,[4] he studied with Yom-Tov Lipman, the rabbi of the city, and at the Mir Yeshiva. In 1884, at the age of 14, he began studying at the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik,[5] where he remained for seven years.[2][6]

While at the yeshiva, he became involved in the secret [Orthodox] Ness Ziona Society, part of the Hovevei Zion movement. Together with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, he contributed to the founding of the city of Hadera by buying land for an etrog orchard.

In 1892, at age 22, he married Beila Hinda, daughter of R. Faivel Frank of Ilukste. During his engagement period, he studied at the Raduń Yeshiva with the Chofetz Chaim. During his studies, he contracted tuberculosis due to his roommate hanging animal skins in the room they were renting, and he was forced to return to his parents' home in Mir. His fiancee's family sent him money to pay for medical treatment while pressuring her to cancel the match. She refused, despite the pessimistic predictions of the doctors, and they married after he had recovered.

In 1894, Melzer was appointed by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel as a maggid shiur at the Slabodka yeshiva, together with his brother-in-law Epstein.[5] In 1897, Meltzer left Slabodka to lead the Slutsk Yeshiva[7] which had been established by the Ridvaz in Slutsk.

Later life[edit]

In 1903, Meltzer was appointed as the rabbi of Slutsk, a position he held for 20 years.[2] Although he had already been serving as the rosh yeshiva in that city, he had no document of semicha because he had never planned on accepting a position in the rabbinate, but to teach Torah instead.

When the communal leaders resolved to appoint him as their rabbi, Meltzer wrote to his teacher Soloveitchik and to Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, author of the Arukh HaShulkhan, asking them to send him the necessary affirmation. Epstein immediately mailed him a letter of semicha, while Soloveitchik made do with a brief telegram that simply bore the words, "Yoreh yoreh, yodin yodin".[3]

Meltzer was also a disciple of Yisrael Meir Kagan and Finkel. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Kotler and maternal grandfather of Rabbi Shneur Kotler. He and Rav Aharon fled from Russia to Poland [8] at the outbreak of the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution.[2]

Rabbi Meltzer, who subsequently emigrated to Eretz Yisrael, was a friend and admirer of Abraham Isaac Kook, the chief rabbi of Israel and a self-avowed supporter of Zionism.[5] Meltzer once said to the famous sage Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky of Vilna, “We are considered Torah giants only up until the point that we reach the door of Rabbi Kook’s room.”[9]

In his later years, Meltzer served as the rosh yeshiva of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem.[2]

He died on Tuesday, 17 November 1953 (10th Kislev 5714) at age 83, exactly 20 years after his brother-in-law Moshe Mordechai, and was interred on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.

Students[edit]

Rabbis who were his students include:

References[edit]

  1. ^ Isser Zalman Meltzer "Even HaEzel" (1870 - 1953)"Isser Zalman Meltzer "Even HaEzel"".
  2. ^ a b c d e "Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer zt"l, On His Yahrtzeit, Today". matzav.com. November 27, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer, in honor of his yahrtzeit".
  4. ^ "Pirchei - Agudath Israel - Vayeitzei" (PDF). AgudathIsrael.org. July 2015.
  5. ^ a b c "Meltzer, Isser Zalman". JewishVirtualLibrary.org.
  6. ^ Ronald L. Eisenberg (2014). Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0765709950.
  7. ^ Iwanowska, Bożena (2012). "Szkoły żydowskie na tle szkolnictwa powszechnego na Ziemi Kleckiej powiatu nieświeskiego województwa nowogródzkiego w latach 1921-1939". Kwartalnik Historii Żydów (in Polish). 243 (3): 405–414. ISSN 1899-3044.
  8. ^ (Lithuania) "Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein".
  9. ^ Fendel, Hillel (13 August 2010). "75 Years Without Rabbi Kook: Selected Quotes". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  • Eckman, Lester: History of Yeshivot and White Russia from their Beginnings Until 1945: publ Judaic Research institute, Elizabeth, New Jersey : p 253-259
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