הרב יעקב דוד וילובסקי

Rav Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (30 Shevat 5605/1845–1 Tishrei 5674/1913), known for all generations by his acronym as the Ridbaz, was rav of Slutzk, later rosh yeshiva in Tzfat, and the author of the classic commentaries on the Talmud Yerushalmi. He was born in Kobrin to Rav Zev Wilovsky and was known as an ilui from his youth. At twenty-three he became rav of Izabelin; he served as a darshan in Vilna and as rav of Bobruisk and of Polotsk, and in 5650/1890 was called to the rabbanut of Slutzk, where in 5656/1896 he founded a well-known yeshiva, turning to Slabodka for its first talmidim and setting Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer at its head.

The crown of his life was the Yerushalmi. He learned it for thirty years — with a copy the Vilna Gaon had annotated in his hands — and labored seventeen years on his twin peirushim: Chiddushei Ridbaz, a short commentary on the model of Rashi on the Bavli, and Tosefot Rid, a long commentary on the model of Tosafot, weighing each sugya against its parallels in Shas and halacha. He printed them in an edition of the Yerushalmi together with all the earlier commentaries, and when the funds ran out before seder Nezikin he sailed to America in 5660/1900, where rabbanim and community heads came out to greet him with honor; he dedicated seder Nezikin to his American supporters.

In 5663/1903 he returned to America to strengthen Yiddishkeit there. The assembled Orthodox rabbanim of America, gathered in Philadelphia, crowned him zekan harabbanim, and he was chosen chief rabbi of the Russian congregations of Chicago. He raised his voice for full-day Jewish schools that would join limudei kodesh with English studies — at a time when no such school existed in the country — but entrenched opposition wore down his rabbanut and he laid it down within a year. In 5665/1905 he was oleh to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Tzfat, where he founded a yeshiva, Torat Eretz Yisrael, of some hundred talmidim. He stood among the opponents of the heter mechirah for shemitah, disputing at length with Rav Kook — with whom, for all the sharpness of the machloket, he kept a deep friendship — and republished the Pe’at HaShulchan of Rav Yisrael of Shklov with his own Beit Ridbaz to set out the halachot of shemitah. He cherished the sefarim of the Ben Ish Chai, saying that whoever learns them feels the kedushah resting on his words.

Among his other sefarim are Migdal David, chiddushim on both Talmuds, Chana David on masechet Challah, and the responsa Teshuvot HaRidbaz. He was niftar in Tzfat on Rosh Hashanah, 1 Tishrei 5674/1913, and rests in the old beit hachaim of Tzfat; his son-in-law Rav Yosef Konvitz followed him in the rabbanut of Tzfat, and Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, later head of the London beit din, married his granddaughter.