Isser Zalman Meltzer

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Isser Zalman Meltzer

Isser Zalman Meltzer, (1870 - 1953), was a famous Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
n Orthodox

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
rabbi

Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
, rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
and posek

Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel

Even HaEzel

Even HaEzel is Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer commentary on Mishneh Torah.See also* List of commentaries on Mishneh Torah* Maimonides...
", after the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishne Torah.

Rabbi Meltzer was born in the city of Mir

Mir, Belarus

Mir is a town in Karelicy raion, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus about 85 kilometers southwest of the national capital, Minsk.Mir village was founded sometime prior to 1345....
, in what is today Belarus

Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....
. His father, Baruch Peretz, was also a rabbi. From the age of 10 he studied with Rabbi Yom-tov Lipman, the rabbi of the city, and at the Mir Yeshiva

Mir yeshiva (Poland)

The Mir yeshiva , commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Haredi Judaism yeshiva located in the Eastern European town of Mir, Belarus, Poland, currently in Belarus....
. At the age of 14, he started studying at the Volozhin yeshiva

Volozhin yeshiva

The Volozhin Yeshiva, also known as Etz Chaim Yeshiva, was a yeshiva in the town of Volozhin , founded in 1803 by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, a student of the Vilna Gaon....
under the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik

Chaim Soloveitchik

Chaim Soloveitchik , also known as Reb Chaim Brisker, was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the popular Brisker approach to Talmudic study within Judaism....
, where he remained for seven years.

While at the yeshiva, he became involved in the secret Orthodox Ness Ziona Society, part of the Hovevei Zion

Hovevei Zion

Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are considered the forerunners and foundations of the modern Zionist movement....
movement.

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Isser Zalman Meltzer, (1870 - 1953), was a famous Lithuania

Lithuania

Orthodox Judaism

Rabbi

Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
and posek

Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel

Even HaEzel

Mir, Belarus

Mir is a town in Karelicy raion, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus about 85 kilometers southwest of the national capital, Minsk.Mir village was founded sometime prior to 1345....
, in what is today Belarus

Belarus

Mir yeshiva (Poland)

Volozhin yeshiva

Chaim Soloveitchik

Hovevei Zion

Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are considered the forerunners and foundations of the modern Zionist movement....
movement. Together with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein

Moshe Mordechai Epstein

Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka Yeshiva, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century....
, he contributed to the founding of the city of Hadera

Hadera

Hadera is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa . The city is located along of the Israeli coastal plain....
by buying land for an etrog

Greek citron

The Greece citron Variety of citrus medica was botanically classified by Adolf Engler as the "variety etrog", remarking on its major use for the Jewish ritual during Sukkot, due to its extraordinary natural beauty....
plantation.

In 1894, Rabbi Melzer became a maggid shiur at the Slabodka yeshiva

Slabodka yeshiva

Slabodka yeshiva, also known as Knesses Yisroel, and later as Hebron Yeshiva or Yeshivas Hevron, was known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas" and was devoted to high level study of the Talmud....
, together with his brother in law, Rabbi Epstein. In 1897 Rabbi Meltzer left Slabodka to lead another yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
which had been established by the Ridvaz in Slutsk

Slutsk

Slutsk is a town in Belarus, located on the Sluch River 105 km south of Minsk. In 1995 it had a population of 62,800.Slutsk was first mentioned in writing in 1116....
.

In 1903, Rabbi Meltzer was appointed as the Rabbi

Rabbi

Semicha

Semicha , also semichut , or semicha lerabbanut is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism....
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, Rabbi Meltzer wrote to his teacher Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik

Chaim Soloveitchik

Yechiel Michel Epstein

Yechiel Michel Epstein , often called "the Aruch ha-Shulchan" , was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania. His surname is often preceded by ha-Levi, as he descended from a family of Levites....
, the author of Arukh HaShulkhan, asking them to send him the necessary affirmation. Rabbi Epstein immediately mailed him a letter of semicha, while Rabbi Soloveitchik sufficed with a brief telegram that simply bore the words, "Yoreh yoreh, yodin yodin".

Rabbi Meltzer was also a disciple of the Chofetz Chaim

Yisrael Meir Kagan

Yisrael Meir Kagan sobriquet as The Chofetz Chaim was an influential Eastern European rabbi, Halakha, and ethics whose works continue to be widely influential in Jewish life....
and Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Kotler

Aharon Kotler

Rabbi Aharon Kotler was a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuanian Jews, and later the United States, where he built one of the first yeshivas in the US....
and maternal grandfather of Rabbi Shneur Kotler

Shneur Kotler

Rabbi Shneur Kotler was the son of the famed Talmudic scholar Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Upon the death of his father in 1962, he became the rosh yeshiva of Lakewood yeshiva, a Lithuanian Jews-style Talmudic Haredi Judaism but non-Hasidic Judaism yeshiva in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, New Jersey....
. In his later years, Rabbi Meltzer served as the rosh yeshiva of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva

Etz Chaim Yeshiva

Etz Chaim Yeshiva is an orthodox yeshiva located on Jaffa Road close to the Mahane Yehuda Market in downtown Jerusalem....
in Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
. He died on Tuesday, 17 November (10th Kislev

Kislev

For the Warhammer Fantasy location see Kislev Kislev is the third month of the civil year and the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar....
) 1953.

Students

The legacy of Rabbi Meltzer was carried on by his numerous students:

His son, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Meltzer, Chief Rabbi of Rehovot
Rehovot

Rehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about 20 kilometre south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2007 the city had a total population of 106,200....
, and the father-in-law of Rabbi Yehuda Amital
Yehuda Amital

Rabbi Yehuda Amital, , born Yehuda Klein on 31 October 1924) is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a former member of the Cabinet of Israel....
His son, Rabbi Professor Feivel Meltzer is a noted linguist of Biblical Hebrew in Israel
His son-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchack Ben Menachem, Chief Rabbi of Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva

Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, north-east of Tel Aviv. Petah Tikva's jurisdiction covers 35,868 dunams ....
His son-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Kotler
Aharon Kotler

Rabbi Aharon Kotler was a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuanian Jews, and later the United States, where he built one of the first yeshivas in the US....
, founder of Bais Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, New Jersey
His granddaughter's husband, Rabbi Yehuda Amital
Yehuda Amital

Rabbi Yehuda Amital, , born Yehuda Klein on 31 October 1924) is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a former member of the Cabinet of Israel....
, Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion
Yeshivat Har Etzion

Yeshivat Har Etzion , commonly known as "Gush," is an elite Hesder located in Alon Shvut, a settlement in Gush Etzion near Jerusalem, Israel....
.
Rabbi Elazar Shach
Elazar Shach

Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach , was a leading Eastern European-born and educated Haredi Judaism rabbi who settled and lived in modern Israel....
, Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
of Ponevezh Yeshiva
Ponevezh yeshiva

Ponevezh Yeshiva, often pronounced Ponevitch Yeshiva, is a world renowned yeshiva located in Bnei Brak, Israel. It was originally established in the town of Paneve?ys, Lithuania....
in Israel, and leader of Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania .Lithuania was historically home to a large and influential Jewish community that was almost entirely eliminated during the Holocaust: see Holocaust in Lithuania....
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
Shlomo Zalman Auerbach

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach , was a renowned Rabbi, Posek and Rosh Yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Israel....
, Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah and leading posek
Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
of his time.
Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Zelaznik, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Etz Chaim
Etz Chaim

Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning is an Orthodox Jewish organization designed to reach out to secular and non-Orthodox Judaism Jews in the hopes of bring them into the Baal teshuva Movement ....
.
Rabbi Shimon Zelaznik, (the above's brother) Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshivat Shaalvim
Rabbi Shlomo Goren
Shlomo Goren

Shlomo Goren , was an Orthodox Judaism Religious Zionism rabbi in Israel who founded and served as the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces and subsequently as the third Ashkenazi Jews Chief Rabbinate of Israel from 1973 to 1983....
, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi

Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities....
of Israel.
Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin
Yosef Eliyahu Henkin

Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin was a prominent Orthodox Judaism rabbi in the United States.He was born in Belorussia, and studied at the Slutzker Yeshiva under Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer....
, founder of
Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher
Yisroel Yaakov Fisher

Yisroel Yaakov Fisher, , was a leading posek, Av Beit Din of the Edah HaChareidis and rabbi of the Zichron Moshe neighbourhood in Jerusalem.He was born in Jerusalem in 1928 to Rabbi Aharon Fisher, a prominent member of the Perushim community....