Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky - Biography

Biography

Born in Kobrin, Russia, Wilovsky held Rabbinic posts in Izvolin (1874), Bobruisk (1876), Vilna (1881). Finding that the Vilna position distracted him from his studies, he resigned, and chose to serve as rabbi in a smaller community such as Polotsk (1883), Vilkomir (1887). In 1890 he became chief rabbi of Slutsk, where he established a noted yeshiva in 1896. He took general supervision, appointing Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer as principal.

Wilovsky freely used a copy of the Talmud Yerushalmi which the Vilna Gaon had annotated. After studying the Yerushalmi for thirty years and working steadily on his commentaries for seventeen years, Wilovsky began the publication of an edition of the Yerushalmi which included, besides his own, all the commentaries incorporated in former editions.

Since the subscription fund for his publication was exhausted before the fourth order Nezikin, was completed, Wilovsky travelled to the United States in 1900, where he succeeded in securing subscriptions for many sets of the work. Returning to Russia, he dedicated the Nezikin order to his American patrons.

From 1903 to 1905, Wilovsky returned to the United States. This time, he dropped his former name of Willowsky/Willovsky and assumed the name "Ridvaz" (Rabbi Yaakov David ben Ze'ev").

The United Orthodox Rabbis of America, at their annual meeting in Philadelphia in August 1903, elected Ridvaz as their zekan haRabbanim (elder rabbi), and on September 8, 1903, Ridvaz was elected chief rabbi of the Russian-American congregations in Chicago.

He tried to introduce order into the religious services of his congregations, but met obstruction and opposition on the part of a former rabbi and his followers; not being able to withstand the persistent opposition, Ridvaz resigned his position ten months later. Thereafter, he traveled extensively throughout the United States, lecturing and preaching. On returning to New York, he endeavored to establish a yeshiva based on the European model, but found little encouragement.

In 1905, Ridvaz left America and moved to Safed, where he established a yeshiva, Toras Eretz Yisrael, and entered into controversy with Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook over the proper observance of the Shemittah year.