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Chaim of Volozhin
Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; 21 January 1749 – 14 June 1821) was a rabbi, Talmudist, and ethicist. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner" or simply as "Reb Chaim", he was born in Volozhin (now Valozhyn, Belarus) when it was a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He died there while it was under the control of the Russian Empire.
The title of his major work is Nefesh Ha-Chaim.
Both Chaim and his elder brother Simcha (d. 1812) studied under Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg, the author of the Shaagas Aryeh, who was then rabbi of Volozhin, and afterward under Rabbi Raphael ha-Kohen, (the author of the Toras Yekusiel), later of Hamburg.
He studied Torah for its sake with all his strength, with the greatest holiness, and the most amazing purity. He did not ignore ‘any small or large matter’ in Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, Mechilta, Sifra, Sifri, Tosefta, all the Midrashim, the holy Zohar and the Tikkunim, the acts of Creation and Merkava, the Sefer Yetzirah, all the holy words of the first Kabbalists, and the writings of the Arizal. He toiled tremendously over all of them in an immeasurable way to reconcile their words, to delve into their awesome depths, to correct the light from the darkness of the errors until he demonstrated pathways in their holy words, all of them clear and elucidated, ‘a true Torah in his mouth,’ according to the truth of Torah. All his studies were systematically ordered, laid out, and preserved investing all of his strength to work on it and preserve it literally giving his life over every issue and detail of the Torah and never, in all of his life, looking beyond his four cubits. The degree of his abstinence from worldly matters was wondrous to the extent that he never inquired of his children’s welfare, never writing them ‘unnecessary letters’ and he never read their letters. He was a living person by grasping the Tree of Life virtually never tasting the taste of sleep from the day his holy intellect matured until the Torah was given to him as a gift. His two kidneys became as two fountains, a flowing source of wisdom, growing stronger from day to day and from hour to hour. In addition to this was his awesome humility and lowliness of spirit reflecting his greatness in Torah and one who did not see the holiness of his Torah, service of God and the refined purity of his abstinence from this world, piety, and humility, has never seen ‘light in his days.’
— Chaim of Volozhin - his speaking about his teacher, the Gaon of Vilna (“Nefesh Chaim”)
Aged 25, Chaim became a disciple of Vilna Gaon. Using his new teacher's method, he began his studies anew, returning to Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, and Hebrew grammar. His admiration for the gaon was boundless, and after his death Chaim virtually acknowledged no superior.
It was with the view of applying the methods of the Vilna Gaon that Chaim founded the Volozhin yeshiva, then called Yeshivat Etz Chaim, in 1803 a yeshiva that remained in operation for almost 90 years until it was closed in 1892. The yeshiva became the "mother of all Lithuanian-style yeshivas". He began with ten pupils, young residents of Volozhin, whom Chaim maintained at his own expense. It is related that his wife sold her jewelry to contribute to their maintenance.
The fame of the institution spread, and the number of its students increased, necessitating an appeal to which the Jews of Russia generously responded. Rabbi Chaim lived to see his yeshiva housed in its own building, and to preside over a hundred disciples. He saw one of his students establish his own yeshiva, in Mir.
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Chaim of Volozhin
Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; 21 January 1749 – 14 June 1821) was a rabbi, Talmudist, and ethicist. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner" or simply as "Reb Chaim", he was born in Volozhin (now Valozhyn, Belarus) when it was a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He died there while it was under the control of the Russian Empire.
The title of his major work is Nefesh Ha-Chaim.
Both Chaim and his elder brother Simcha (d. 1812) studied under Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg, the author of the Shaagas Aryeh, who was then rabbi of Volozhin, and afterward under Rabbi Raphael ha-Kohen, (the author of the Toras Yekusiel), later of Hamburg.
He studied Torah for its sake with all his strength, with the greatest holiness, and the most amazing purity. He did not ignore ‘any small or large matter’ in Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, Mechilta, Sifra, Sifri, Tosefta, all the Midrashim, the holy Zohar and the Tikkunim, the acts of Creation and Merkava, the Sefer Yetzirah, all the holy words of the first Kabbalists, and the writings of the Arizal. He toiled tremendously over all of them in an immeasurable way to reconcile their words, to delve into their awesome depths, to correct the light from the darkness of the errors until he demonstrated pathways in their holy words, all of them clear and elucidated, ‘a true Torah in his mouth,’ according to the truth of Torah. All his studies were systematically ordered, laid out, and preserved investing all of his strength to work on it and preserve it literally giving his life over every issue and detail of the Torah and never, in all of his life, looking beyond his four cubits. The degree of his abstinence from worldly matters was wondrous to the extent that he never inquired of his children’s welfare, never writing them ‘unnecessary letters’ and he never read their letters. He was a living person by grasping the Tree of Life virtually never tasting the taste of sleep from the day his holy intellect matured until the Torah was given to him as a gift. His two kidneys became as two fountains, a flowing source of wisdom, growing stronger from day to day and from hour to hour. In addition to this was his awesome humility and lowliness of spirit reflecting his greatness in Torah and one who did not see the holiness of his Torah, service of God and the refined purity of his abstinence from this world, piety, and humility, has never seen ‘light in his days.’
— Chaim of Volozhin - his speaking about his teacher, the Gaon of Vilna (“Nefesh Chaim”)
Aged 25, Chaim became a disciple of Vilna Gaon. Using his new teacher's method, he began his studies anew, returning to Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, and Hebrew grammar. His admiration for the gaon was boundless, and after his death Chaim virtually acknowledged no superior.
It was with the view of applying the methods of the Vilna Gaon that Chaim founded the Volozhin yeshiva, then called Yeshivat Etz Chaim, in 1803 a yeshiva that remained in operation for almost 90 years until it was closed in 1892. The yeshiva became the "mother of all Lithuanian-style yeshivas". He began with ten pupils, young residents of Volozhin, whom Chaim maintained at his own expense. It is related that his wife sold her jewelry to contribute to their maintenance.
The fame of the institution spread, and the number of its students increased, necessitating an appeal to which the Jews of Russia generously responded. Rabbi Chaim lived to see his yeshiva housed in its own building, and to preside over a hundred disciples. He saw one of his students establish his own yeshiva, in Mir.