Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; 21 January 1749 – 14 June 1821)Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 347–349; idem, Kiryah Ne'emanah, pp. 156–158; Lewin, Aliyyot Eliyahu (ed. Stettin), p. 70; Schechter, Studies in Judaism, p. 85, Philadelphia, 1896; Jatzkan, Rabbenu Eliyah mi-Wilna, pp. 100–106, St. Petersburg, 1901; Ha-Shahar, vi. 96; Eliezer of Botoshan, Kin'at Soferim, p. 796; Ahiasaf, 5654, p. 260, and 5699, p. 81; Reines, Ozar ha-Sifrut, iii.; Ha-Kerem, 1887, pp. 179–181; David Tebele, Bet Dawid, Preface, Warsaw, 1854; Maginne Erez, Preface, Shklov, 1803; Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus. pp. 179, 555.S was a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ist, and

ethicist Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics ...

. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner" or simply as "Reb Chaim", he was born in

Volozhin Valozhyn or Volozhin (, ; ; ; ; ) is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Valozhyn District. It is located northwest of the capital Minsk, on the Valozhynka River in the Neman, Neman River basin, and the begi ...

(now

Valozhyn Valozhyn or Volozhin (, ; ; ; ; ) is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Valozhyn District. It is located northwest of the capital Minsk, on the Valozhynka River in the Neman, Neman River basin, and the begi ...

, Belarus) when it was a part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. He died there while it was under the control of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The title of his major work is .

Student of the Vilna Gaon

Both Chaim and his elder brother Simcha (d. 1812) studied under Rabbi

Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg Aryeh Leib ben Asher Ginzburg (or Wallerstein) () ( 1695 – June 23, 1785), also known as the Shaagas Aryeh, was a Lithuanian rabbi and author. Life Born in Lithuania , he was a rabbinical casuist. At one time, Ginsburg was a rabbi in Pinsk, ...

, 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 Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. Aged 25, Chaim became a disciple of

Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman''), also known as the Vilna Gaon ( ''Der Vilner Goen''; ; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gr"a ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 172 ...

. Using his new teacher's method, he began his studies anew, returning to

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

, and

Hebrew grammar Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

. His admiration for the gaon was boundless, and after his death Chaim virtually acknowledged no superior.

Establishing the Volozhin Yeshiva

It was with the view of applying the methods of the Vilna Gaon that Chaim founded the

Volozhin yeshiva Yeshivas Etz Ḥayyim (), commonly called the Volozhin Yeshiva (), was a prestigious LItvak yeshiva located in the town of Volozhin in the Russian Empire (now Valozhyn, Belarus). It was founded around 1803 by Khayim Volozhiner, a student of the ...

, then called Yeshivat Etz Chaim, in 1803 a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

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 ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

. Chaim continued to teach the Vilna Gaon's study method of penetrating analysis of the Talmudic text, seeking to elicit the intent and meaning of the writing of the ''

Rishonim ''Rishonim'' (; ; sing. , ''Rishon'') were the leading rabbis and ''posek, poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (, "Set Table", a common printed code of Jewis ...

''. This approach was followed by all the great Lithuanian yeshivas, such as Slobodka yeshiva, Mir Yeshiva, Ponevezh yeshiva, Kelm yeshiva, Kletsk yeshiva, and Telz yeshiva.

Works

Rav Chaim's major work is the ''Nefesh Ha-Chaim'' ("Living Soul"). It deals with complex understandings of the nature of God, but also with secrets of prayer and the importance of Torah, and the purpose being "to implant the fear of God,

, and pure worship into the hearts of the upright who are seeking the ways of God". It presents a clear and orderly

kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

Weltanschauung A worldview (also world-view) or is said to be the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. However, when two parties view the s ...

'' that addresses many of the same issues as the

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

texts of the day. The work is generally viewed as the Lithuanian response to Hasidism, albeit in a much less harsh manner than the criticisms of Hasidim voiced by Rav Chaim's predecessors such as the Vilna Gaon and Rav Yechezkel Landau. Norman Lamm described its structure: In addition, Chaim wrote ''Ruach Chaim'', published posthumously. It is a commentary on '' Pirkei Avoth''. Both titles also play on his name, "Chaim". Thus, for example, "The Spirit of Life" can also be translated as "Chaim's Spirit" or "Chaim's Soul". Many of Chaim's

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

halakhic ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments (''mitzv ...

subjects were lost by fire in 1815.

Family

Chaim's brother, known as Zalman of Volozhin, is considered to have been among the greatest students of the Vilna Gaon. Zalman of Volozhin's biography, the hagiographical Toldos Adam, includes many anecdotes related to the author by Rabbi Chaim. Rabbi Chaim's son, Yitzchak, took over the leadership of the yeshiva upon his father's death in 1821. Yitzchak's daughter, Rivka, was married to Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak Fried, her first cousin. (Eliezer Yitzchak's mother, Esther, was Yitzchak's sister.) Another of Yitzchak's daughters married

Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 – 10 August 1893), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was a Russian Orthodox rabbi, rosh yeshiva ( dean) of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several work ...

aka the "Netziv". Among Rabbi Chaim's descendants are the Soloveitchik family, such as his great-grandson Yosef Dov Soloveitchik.D. Eliach, Avi Ha'yeshivot, p.21 (1991)

References

External links

Benjamin Brown, '“But Me No Buts”: The Theological Debate Between the Hasidim and the Mitnagdim in Light of the Discourse-Markers Theory'
* Raphael Shuchat, https://www.academia.edu/68949584/R_Hayyim_of_Volozhin_and_Hasidism {{DEFAULTSORT:Volozhin, Chaim 1749 births 1821 deaths People from Valozhyn Belarusian Orthodox rabbis Volozhin rosh yeshivas 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian rabbis 19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire