הלל ריבלין

Rav Hillel Rivlin of Shklov, called Rivals (2 Tishrei 5518/1757–9 Sivan 5598/1838), was a son of Rav Binyamin Rivlin of Shklov, who was both a cousin of the Vilna Gaon and his talmid. By the tradition of the Rivlin family, Rav Hillel himself learned from the Gaon; and in 5542/1782, when the Gaon saw that he would not be able to go up to Eretz Yisrael himself, he set Rav Hillel at the head of a movement called Chazon Tzion that was to bring about the aliyah, and gave over to him the secrets of the geulah. By that same family tradition, Rav Hillel stood at the head of the aliyah of the Gaon’s talmidim in 5569/1809.

He married Tzipporah, called Tzipa, daughter of Zev Wolf son of Rav Moshe Yuzels. Their son, Rav Moshe Rivlin, served as rav of the Ashkenazi community of Yerushalayim from 5600 to 5606 (1840–1846). A son-in-law of Rav Hillel was Shmaryahu Luria of Mohilev, a philanthropist and public worker, who was father-in-law to Rav David Friedman and to Yechiel Michel Pines. His descendants in the generations that followed, foremost among them his great-grandson Rav Yosef — Yoshe — Rivlin, carried on his path and were the first to settle outside the walls of the Old City of Yerushalayim.

The sefer Kol HaTor, which sets out the approach to the geulah that its author received from the Gaon, is ascribed by the Rivlin family tradition to Rav Hillel. It was brought to print as an appendix to HaTekufah HaGedolah of Rav Menachem Mendel Kasher, and from then on it has served as the basis of the approach that the geulah comes by way of nature.