Yitzhak of Volozhin (also known as Rabbi Yitzhak ben Chaim of Volozhin, Rabbi Itsele Volozhiner, and HagRIts; 1780 – 16 June 1849) was a

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

of the Volozhin Yeshiva.

Biography

Yitzhak was born in 1780 in Volozhin, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to

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 o ...

Chaim Ickovits of Volozhin. As

Rosh Yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

, his father taught him in the Volozhin Yeshiva, making him one of his closest desciples in Torah. Yitzhak would later become a teacher there during his father's lifetime and inherit the position of Rosh Yeshiva after his father's death. He would also name the yeshivah Eitz Chaim in honor of his father. He would earn the acronym HagRIts, Hagaon Rabbi Itskhak, according to rabbi Baruch Epstein. He would continue to operate the yeshiva after it was officially closed by government authorities in 1824, making a name for himself as a

misnaged ''Misnagdim'' (, "Opponents"; Sephardi pronunciation: ''Mitnagdim''; singular ''misnaged''/''mitnaged'') was a religious movement among the Jews of Eastern Europe which resisted the rise of Hasidism in the 18th and 19th centuries. The ''Misnag ...

figure.

In 1843 Yitzhak would attend a government convened conference on reforming Jewish education. The government, under the leadership of

Tsar Nicholas I , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...

and Minister of Education Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov, sought to push

russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

on the Jewish population through their agent Max Lilienthal. In the face of this, Yitzchak defended the

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

position, alongside leaders such as the Third Lubavitcher Rebbe, and would make a positive impression on Count Uvarov. Where the Lubavitcher Rebbe was putting up a desperate defense, claiming that the Jewish people's spiritual concerns supersede the Czar's government, Yitzhak presented the misnagdim as fearful of being brushed aside by the government and made attempts to achieve concessions from the Russian government without surrendering Jewish identity and values. Yitzchak argued that public school would be a danger to Jewish upbringing and that the Jewish people needed more

political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

. Yitzhak died on 16 June 1849 in

Ivenets Ivyanets ( be, Iвяне́ц, ; russian: Ивенец; pl, Iwieniec), also known as Ivianec, is a town in the Valozhyn District of Minsk Region, Belarus. It is located west of Minsk, and has a population of 4,206 (2017). Ivyanets is best known ...

. Rabbi Eliezer Fried, the husband of one of his daughters, would succeed Yitzhak as Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi

Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 in Mir, Russia – 10 August 1893 in Warsaw, Poland), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, ''Rosh yeshiva'' (dean) of the Volozhin Ye ...

, a second son in law of Yitzhak, would succeed Rabbi Fried.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yitzchak of Volozhin 1780 births 1849 deaths Volozhin rosh yeshivas 19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire Belarusian Orthodox rabbis People from Valozhyn