Yitzchak Blazer (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: יצחק בלאזר) (1837–1907) was an early important leader of the
Musar movement.
He is also sometimes referred to as Rav Itzele Peterburger due to his position as Chief Rabbi of
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
at a time when it was the capital of
Russia.
Background
Rav Yitzchak Blazer was a student of Rabbi
Yisroel Salanter, founder of the Musar movement, under whose direction, despite his relatively young age (25) he was appointed Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg.
Accomplishments
Among Blazer's accomplishments, in addition to his own authorship of ''Pri Yitzchak'', a
halakhic
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comma ...
responsa text, was the publishing of many of Salanter's letters in ''Or Yisrael'' ("The Light of Israel"), as well as articles on
Musar,
Teshuvah
Repentance ( he, תשובה, literally, "return", pronounced ''tshuva'' or ''teshuva'') is one element of atoning for sin in Judaism. Judaism recognizes that everybody sins on occasion, but that people can stop or minimize those occasions in t ...
, and the life of his teacher, Rav Yisrael Salanter. He also authored ''Kochvei Ohr''.
From 1880 to approximately 1891, he served as the head of the
Kovno Kollel in
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see #Etymology, other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duch ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, which was founded by Salanter. Under Blazer's direction, the kollel came to be "considered by its contemporaries as a bastion of the
Mussar movement," a Jewish ethical movement based in Lithuania within the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. T ...
, and was attacked by the
Musar movement's opponents.
He later joined
Nosson Tzvi Finkel in leading the
Slabodka Yeshiva.
Rabbi
Yosef Yozel Horwitz was one of the primary pupils of Rabbi Blazer.
Later years
In 1904 he emigrated to Jerusalem, where Rav
Shmuel Salant
Shmuel Salant ( he, שמואל סלנט; January 2, 1816 – August 16, 1909) served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem for almost 70 years. He was a renowned Talmudist and Torah scholar.
Early life
Shmuel Salant was born in Białystok ...
was Chief Rabbi; during Rav Itzele's last three years they worked together on several communal and charitable projects.
[ Rav Blazer died on 11 Av 5667 (1907).]
Personal ''Anivus''
In keeping with his teacher's ideas and ideals, his acts of personal ''Anivus'' (humility) included:
* worked as a painter until stopped by Rav Salanter.[
* worked as a clerk during his last three years of life, rather than take communal funds.
* wrote that he was not to be given a formal eulogy.][
]
References
External links
R' Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff on Yitzchak Blazer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blazer, Yitzchak
1907 deaths
19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire
Musar movement
1837 births
Rabbis from Kaunas