Rav Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi

Early years

Rav Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi zt"l, who became known as the Chacham Tzvi after the title of his responsa, was born in 1656 in Moravia to Rav Yaakov Ashkenazi. The family was a distinguished one of scholars. His grandfather, Rav Ephraim HaKohen, author of Shaar Efraim, served as Rav of Alt-Ofen, and had married the daughter of a grandchild of Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm.

His first teachers were his father and his grandfather. Later he traveled to Salonica and studied for a time in the school of Rav Elihu Cobo, concentrating mainly on Sephardic methods of learning. In Salonica he also saw the deep effect that the movement of Shabsai Tzvi (Sabbatai Zevi) had had on the community, and that experience shaped the whole course of his life.

On the journey back to Alt-Ofen he apparently spent some time in Constantinople, probably until 1679. His learning and sharp mind so impressed the people there that, although he was a Polish scholar, they gave him the title Chacham, which the Sephardim keep for their own rabbanim. He kept it for the rest of his life. Shortly afterward he married a daughter of one of Alt-Ofen's prominent citizens.

Rav of Altona and Amsterdam

Austrian troops invaded Alt-Ofen in 1686, and a cannon shot killed his young wife and his daughter. He fled, losing contact with his parents, whom the Prussians took captive. He reached Sarajevo and was appointed Rav there. He left in 1689, probably after a dispute with some members of the congregation, and went to Germany.

In Berlin he married Sarah, daughter of Rav Meshullam Zalman Mirels Neumark, Rav of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck. Following his father-in-law's counsel, he settled in Altona in 1690. The community's leaders built a Klaus (study house) and made him its Rav. His yeshiva grew famous, drawing students from many places. The Klaus paid just sixty thalers a year, so he supported his household through business ventures, among them dealing in jewelry.

In his father-in-law's final years he had helped with the older man's duties. When that Rav passed away, part of the community wanted the Chacham Tzvi to serve all three congregations, together called AHU, while another part preferred Rav Moshe ben Alexander Rothenburg. The compromise was that each would serve six months at a time, in turn. Disputes over religious questions sharpened until, in 1709, he resigned and went back to the Klaus.

A letter dated 10 January 1710 named him chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam. The position included a home and 2,500 Dutch guilders a year, a very large sum in those days. Independent and selfless by nature, he waived the customary extras of the office, such as fees for civil cases. He took the post only on the understanding that he would never have to defer to the congregation or accept gifts, and that his freedom to act would be complete.

From his first days in the city he faced an opposing faction led by Aaron Polak Gokkes. On 26 May 1712 the leaders resolved to end his service when the three years named in his letter of appointment were over. He declared that he would never accept the dismissal, which he considered unjust. His pay apparently went unpaid, and when the parnasim offered the money owed him if he would return his letter of appointment, he refused.

In 1713 Nechemiah Chiya Chayun came to Amsterdam and asked the Portuguese congregation for permission to circulate writings that had been printed in Berlin. The Chacham Tzvi believed him to be an old adversary from Sarajevo and Salonica, and asked the Sephardic Chacham, Rav Shlomo Ayllon, to withhold his backing. After Chayun visited and explained himself, the Chacham Tzvi withdrew the charge, saying he had mistaken the man's identity.

Meanwhile Rav Moshe Hagiz, an emissary from Yerushalayim who was staying in Amsterdam, examined the writings, recognized their Sabbatean principles at once and raised the alarm. He pointed out the dangerous teachings to the Chacham Tzvi, who again warned the Sephardic leaders not to support the author. The Chacham Tzvi refused to sit on an investigative committee led by Rav Ayllon, whom he did not regard as qualified to judge such matters. A bitter controversy followed, and Rav Moshe Hagiz stood bravely beside him.

On 23 July 1713, before the committee had reported, the Chacham Tzvi put Chayun under the ban. After that, he and Rav Moshe Hagiz were assaulted in the street and threatened with death, mostly by members of the Portuguese congregation. Rav Ayllon alone wrote the committee's report, which stated that Chayun's writings held nothing offensive to Judaism. The next day Chayun was received in the synagogue with great honor. The conflict grew so bitter that the peace of the entire community, which had been a model congregation, was shattered, and only a few loyal friends remained with the Chacham Tzvi.

He declined a summons to appear before the Portuguese tribunal, which held no authority over him. On 9 November 1713 the Portuguese community formally placed him and Rav Moshe Hagiz under the ban. The city authorities, swayed against him by Rav Ayllon and the Portuguese leaders, confined him to his home, most likely to protect his life. The matter went to the magistrates, with the aim of having him expelled from Amsterdam. They sought opinions from professors at Leiden, Utrecht and Harderwijk, but no ruling is known.

Travels and final years

Helped by his friend Solomon Levi Norden de Lima, he resigned and left Amsterdam in early 1714, possibly in secret, before the magistrates could act. Leaving his wife and children in Emden, he went to London, where the Sephardic congregation had invited him. There he made many friends and was shown great respect. He had been invited even earlier to serve as rabbi of that congregation, but had turned the offer down. He was also asked to rule on the orthodoxy of Rav David Nieto, whose sermon was said to contain Spinozistic views.

It is told that his portrait in oils was painted in London after he refused, because of religious scruples, to let his likeness be stamped on a coin. His son, Rav Yaakov Emden, the Yaavetz, relates that the portrait was painted in secret and with such exactness that when he saw it he staggered back, as if his father were standing before him.

The next spring he went back to Emden, then journeyed on toward Poland through Hanover, Halberstadt, Berlin and Breslau, staying a while in each. After two years in Staszów he was summoned to Hamburg to join a beis din that was to settle a complicated legal question. In 1717, when Rav Simcha Cohen Rapoport passed away, he was called to be Rav of Lemberg, where his congregation and the wider community held him in high esteem.

Four months after taking up that post, he passed away on 1 Iyar 5478 (2 May 1718). His wife, Sarah, passed away in Lemberg on 23 January 1719.

Legacy

The Chacham Tzvi was firm, unselfish and independent. Wherever he went, his bluntness and passion stirred resentment, and sometimes hatred, among the wealthy and among some scholars. Even so, everyone who knew him, including those who knew him merely as head of the Klaus in Altona, praised his vast learning, his sharp mind, his clear explanations that never got lost in pilpul, and his total indifference to money. He chose real hardship over accepting financial help; the wealthy of his day took this as stubbornness and pride, and it brought him much suffering.

His independent nature made his career a turbulent one. He stood firmly against the followers of the false messiah Shabsai Tzvi. Part of his responsa were published under the title Chacham Tzvi (Amsterdam, 1712, and many times since). The work is known for its clarity and for sticking closely to the subject.

His son Rav Yaakov Emden, the Yaavetz, became Rav in Emden and, like his father, fought the Sabbatean movement. His daughter Miriam married Rav Aryeh Leib ben Shaul, Rav of Amsterdam. Chief Rabbi Hart Lyon was her son, and Solomon Heschel, the earliest chief rabbi of the British Empire, was her grandson. His son Rav David was av beis din of Novyy Yarychev in Ukraine, and an ancestor of Miriam, the mother of Rav Chaim Halberstam, the Divrei Chaim. His grandson Meshullam Solomon was rabbi of the Hambro Synagogue in London, and his great-grandson was Rav Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa (1760–1832).