Rav Chaim Itzkowitz of Volozhin
The main talmid of the Vilna Gaon, who founded the Volozhin Yeshiva and wrote the Nefesh HaChaim.
Biography
Early years
Rav Chaim of Volozhin zt"l, author of the Nefesh HaChaim, was born in Volozhin in 5509 (1749), the son of Rav Yitzchok Itzkowitz.
Torah and leadership
Rav Chaim became a foremost talmid of the Gaon of Vilna, and it was the Gaon who chose him to establish a yeshiva. In 1802 he founded the Volozhin Yeshiva, which became the most important and influential yeshiva in Lithuania.
He went on teaching the method of the Vilna Gaon, a penetrating analysis of the Gemara text that seeks the intent and meaning behind the words of the Rishonim (the early commentators). The great Lithuanian yeshivos that followed, among them Slobodka, Mir, Kelm, Klezk and Telz, all adopted this approach.
Teachings and seforim
His major work is the Nefesh HaChaim, which reflects the saintly purity of his character, his greatness in Torah and his deep wisdom. It was written to plant fear of Heaven, Torah and pure avodah (service of Hashem) in the hearts of upright people who are seeking Hashem's ways.
The sefer stresses the power of Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos to bring a Jew close to Hashem. Its well-known discussion of dveikus (cleaving to Hashem) takes issue with the view that dveikus must come before the performance of mitzvos.
Rav Chaim also wrote Ruach Chaim, a commentary on Pirkei Avos, and Nishmas Chaim, a collection of responsa. The Nefesh HaChaim became the most widely studied text in the mussar yeshivos.
Later years and passing
Rav Chaim passed away in Volozhin on 14 Sivan 5581 (1821).
Legacy
The Volozhin Yeshiva endured for more than a hundred years and became the mother of all the Lithuanian yeshivos. The ever-growing number of great yeshivos in America, England and Eretz Yisroel carry on the tradition of Volozhin and stand as a living testimony to their founder.
Teachings
We Ourselves Are the Mishkan
Rav Chaim taught that the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was not meant only to give Klal Yisroel an external structure. Hashem's real wish, in the Mishkan and in all its vessels, was to hint that we should learn from them and become a Mishkan ourselves. By our fine actions we are to be a sanctuary filled with holy, worthy vessels, ready for the Shechinah to dwell within us. This is the meaning of the verse “Make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell within them” (Shemos 25:8). It says “within them,” meaning within each one of us. Just as Hashem showed us the order of building the Mishkan, so we must learn to build ourselves into a dwelling place for Him. This is the duty of every Jew, not only of the Kohanim and Leviim, who served in the physical Bais HaMikdash.
Nefesh HaChaim, Shaar 1, Perek 4
The Father Who Wakes His Sick Child
To explain suffering, Rav Chaim gave a parable. A child is seriously ill and sunk in a deep sleep, and the doctors warn the father that if the sleep continues the worst may happen. The father must do everything to keep him awake. First he removes the pillow, then he trades the soft bed for a hard couch. Each time the child stirs for a moment and falls back asleep, so the father takes harsher measures, even laying him on a bed of thorns. The father's suffering, as he must act with cruelty out of love, is no less than his son's. When the son is healed, his love and attachment to his father grow even stronger, in gratitude for the pain he was made to endure in order to be saved.
Parable of Rav Chaim of Volozhin on suffering
Torah Learned With Dveikus
In his commentary Ruach Chaim, Rav Chaim recounts a story told about Rav Dovid, the Taz, author of Turei Zahav on the Shulchan Aruch. A woman came to him crying that her son was so weak he was at death's door. He replied that he was not in Hashem's place. She answered that she was crying out to the Torah he learned and represented, for the Holy One and His holy Torah are one. The Taz then said he would give the Torah he was learning that day with his students as a gift to the sick boy, in the hope that in its merit he would live. At that moment the boy's fever broke. Rav Chaim draws from this that Torah study, with the power of dveikus, can bring healing and even revive the dead.
Ruach Chaim, on Pirkei Avos 1:1
Seforim
- Nefesh HaChaim: His major work, on the power of Torah study and mitzvos and the fear of Heaven; it became the most widely studied text in the mussar yeshivos.
- Ruach Chaim: His commentary on Pirkei Avos.
- Nishmas Chaim: A collection of his responsa.
Family & talmidim
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@{name=The Gaon of Vilna}:
Also on 14 Sivan
All hilulos on 14 Sivan ›Historical sources
- Ascent of Safed
- Ruach Chaim
- Nefesh HaChaim