Judaica Jewish Hebrew Letter by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer.

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Judaica Jewish Hebrew Letter by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer.:
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Full page letter with damage on the side effecting text.
Zvi Hirsch KalischerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaZvi (Zwi) Hirsch KalischerZvi Hirsch KalischerBornMarch 24, 1795
Lissa,PrussianProvince of Posen
(today Leszno,Poland)DiedOctober 16, 1874(aged79)
Thorn, Prussia
(today Toruń,Poland)OccupationRabbi

Zvi (Zwi) Hirsch Kalischer(24 March 1795 – 16 October 1874) was anOrthodoxJewishrabbiwho expressed views, from a religious perspective, in favour of the Jewish re-settlement of theLand of Israel, which predateTheodor Herzland theZionistmovement. He was the grandfather ofSalomon Kalischer.

Life[edit]

Kalischer was born inLissain thePrussianProvince of Posen(now Leszno in Poland). Destined for therabbinate, he received hisTalmudiceducation fromJacob of Lissaand RabbiAkiva Eigerof Posen.

After his marriage he left Jacob of Lissa and settled in Thorn, a city on theVistula River, then in Prussia and nowToruń, in northernPoland, where he spent the rest of his life.

In Toruń, he took an active interest in the affairs of the Jewish community, and for more than forty years held the office ofRabbinatsverweser(\"acting rabbi\"). Disinterestedness was a prominent feature of his character; he refused to accept any remuneration for his services. His wife, by means of a small business, provided their meager subsistence.

Works[edit]

In his youth he wroteEben Bochan, a commentary on several juridical themes of theShulkhan Arukh,Choshen Mishpat(Krotoschin, 1842), andSefer Moznayim la-Mishpat, a commentary, in three parts on the whole Choshen Mishpat\' (parts i. and ii., Krotoschin and Königsberg, 1855; part iii. still in manuscript). He also wrote: Tzvi L\'Tzadik (צבי לצדיק) glosses on the Shulkhan Arukh,Yoreh De\'ah, published in the new Vilna edition of that work; theSefer ha-Berit[1]commentary on thePentateuch; theSefer Yetzi\'at Mitzrayimcommentary on thePassoverPesachHaggadah;Chiddushimon severalTalmudicaltreatises; etc. He also contributed largely toHebrewmagazines, asHa-Maggid,Tziyyon,Ha-\'Ibri, andHa-Lebanon.

Views on the re-settlement of the Land of Israel[edit]

Inclined to philosophical speculation, Kalischer studied the systems of medieval and modern Jewish andChristianphilosophers, one result being hisSefer Emunah Yesharahan inquiry intoJewish philosophyand theology (2 vols., Krotoschin, 1843, 1871); an appendix to volume 1 contains a commentary (incomplete) onJobandEcclesiastes.

In the midst of his many activities, however, his thoughts centered on one idea: the settlement of theLand of Israelby Jews, in order to provide a home for the homelessEastern EuropeanJews and transform the many Jewish beggars in theHoly Landinto a population able to support itself by agriculture.

He wrote in theHa-Levanon, a Hebrew (at that period, a renovated language) monthly magazine.[2]In 1862 he published his bookDrishat Tzion(Lyck, 1862)[3]on this subject, including many quotes from his commentaries in theHa-Levanonmagazine. He proposed:

To collect money for this purpose from Jews in all countries
To buy and cultivate land in Israel
To found an agricultural school, either in Israel itself or in France, and
To form a Jewish military guard for the security of the colonies.

He thought the time especially favorable for the carrying out of this idea, as the sympathy of men likeIsaac Moïse Crémieux,Moses Montefiore,Edmond James de Rothschild, andAlbert Cohnrendered the Jews politically influential. To these and similar Zionist ideals he gave expression in hisDerishat Zion,[4]containing three theses:

The salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only in a natural way — by self-help
Immigration to Israel
Admissibility of the observance ofsacrificesin Jerusalem at the present day.

The appendix contains an invitation to the reader to become a member of the colonization societies of Israel.

The second part of the book is devoted to speaking to \"the nations\" who believe in the bible and the prophets, and persuading them, that this new course in history is a logical one, and that they too can hope for the salvation of the Jewish nation as part of the salvation of the entire world.[5]

This book made a very great impression, especially in the Eastern Europe. It was translated intoGermanby Poper (Toruń, 1865), and a second Hebrew edition was issued by N. Friedland (Toruń, 1866). Kalischer himself traveled with indefatigable zeal to various German cities for the purpose of establishing colonization societies. It was his influence that caused Chayyim Lurie (Chaim Lorje 1821-1878), inFrankfort-on-the-Mainin 1860, to form the first society of this kind (Association for the Colonisation of Palestine), and this was followed by others.

Owing to Kalischer\'s agitation, theAlliance Israélite Universellefounded theMikveh Israelagricultural school in Israel in 1870. He was offered the rabbinate, but he was too old to accept it. Although all these endeavors were not attended with immediate success, Kalischer never lost hope. By exerting a strong influence upon his contemporaries, including such prominent men asHeinrich Grätz,Moses Hess(seeRome and Jerusalem, pp.117 et seq.), and others, he is considered to have been one of the most important of those who prepared the way for the foundation of modernZionism.