הרב צבי הירש חיות

Rav Tzvi Hirsch Chajes (28 Cheshvan 5566/1805–30 Tishrei 5616/1855), known as the Maharatz Chajes from the acronym of his name, was a Galician rav and Torah scholar whose glosses on the Talmud are printed in the standard editions of Shas. He was born in Brody to Rav Meir, a wealthy merchant of the family of Rav Yitzchak Chajes, author of Zera Yitzchak. He learned Torah in his native city under Rav Tzvi Hirsch Heller, Rav Ephraim Zalman Margulies, and Rav Elazar Landau, and alongside his Torah study acquired French, German, and Italian and a grounding in the sciences and history — an unusually broad secular education for a Torah-observant Jew of his time.

At twenty-three he was appointed rav of Zolkiew (Zhovkva), where he served for many years. When an Austrian law of 1846 required rabbinic candidates to hold a university degree, he was examined in philosophy and the humanities and received his diploma from the university in Lvov. In 5612/1852 the community of Kalisz, in Poland, called him to serve as its rav. During the cholera epidemic of 5615/1855 he and his wife fell ill; he was niftar that year in Lvov, where he had gone to seek medical care, at the age of fifty.

In the yeshiva world he is known first for his glosses on the order of the tractates of the Talmud, included in the traditional printings of Shas, among them the widespread Vilna edition. His research works include Mevo HaTalmud, an introduction to the Talmud treating both its halachic and its aggadic portions; Torat Neviim on the authority of the Oral Torah; Darkhei Horaah on the rules of practical psak; Ateret Tzvi on the targumim, the midrashim, and the structure of the Oral Law; Minchat Kenaot, a reasoned opposition to halachic reforms; and Matbea HaBerachot on the Abudraham. His responsa were also published. Two of his grandsons were Rav Tzvi Peretz Chajes, rav of Vienna, and Shaul Chajes, a librarian of the Vienna community archive.