Reflections
the Yahrzeit of the author of ‘HaKsav veHaKabbala’
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Meckelenburg was a fierce opponent to the Haskolah movement which was making headway in Germany.
Motty Meringer 29/03/2009 10:00
The Gaon Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Meckelenburg was born in the year 5545 or thereabouts to Rabbi Gamliel. The origin of the family name Meckelenburg is the name of a border region of Germany and it appears that Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi’s ancestors had at one time lived there. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi served as rav in the town of Kenigsburg in Germany (which is today known as Kaliningrad, in Russian territory). In Kenigsburg, as in the whole of Germany, the haskolah was making great headway, and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi was one of its most fierce opponents.
In the year 5604 the ‘Rabbis’ of the reform movement held a convention in the city of Braunschweig. During the course of their meetings, they decided on various reforms they wished to make to the Jewish religion, and endeavoured to promote the spreading of their movement. The decisions they reached included the abolition of the Kol Nidrei prayer and the permissibility of inter-faith marriages, as long as the children would be educated as Jews. However, this condition was simply a farce, since according to the law of the land, it was forbidden to educate children as Jews if one of the parents was not Jewish.
The holy Malbim was at the forefront of those who forcefully opposed the reform convention and its conclusions. In the introduction to his commentary on Sefer Vayikra, he mourns the terrible situation thus;
“The holy Torah of HaShem sobs her lament; tears wet her cheeks. Her children, her dear ones have betrayed her; some of her defenders in Ashkenaz have been consumed by fire by those who rose to attack HaShem. And they rose and united to uproot the religion and its statutes; they dealt secretively. These many plain people glorified themselves with the title ‘rav’; they gathered together in the town of Braunschweig, in the depths of the valley of demons and foxes, their tails as burning embers…..”
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi also took a part in the condemnation of the convention and was determined to wage a war against it and its organizers.
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi is also known by the title of his sefer, ‘HaKsav veHaKabbala’. His purpose in writing such a sefer was to demonstrate the connection between the Oral and Written Laws, hence its name; ‘Ksav’ is the written law and ‘Kabbala’ is the oral law, passed down over the generations. At the conclusion of his sefer he writes; “For the Written Law and the Oral Law are twin companions; their rectitude is interwoven. If one will but open a little his eyes, he will surely see how these two Torahs are bound together and cannot be separated; both are completely true since they both originate from one faithful servant who transmitted them to the Congregation of Yaakov.”
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi’s commentaries and writings are based on close attention to the nuances and detail of language and grammar, according to which Chazal derived the oral teachings. He refers to many of the great commentators in his sefer, laying a special emphasis on the writings of the Shadal and the Vilna Gaon. At the end of his sefer Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi included an addendum in which he outlines the arguments of those who challenged the immutability of our tradition and demonstrates the falsity of their positions. He writes; “And let this be a witness and a warning to all those who wish to investigate; that they should not dare to contradict those who have gone before us – they should not fall into error – for all the words of our holy ancestors are true and pure and it is our obligation, we who are of poor understanding, to follow in their ways, to pursue the path they have laid out for us, for the Torah comes forth from them.”
‘HaKsav veHaKabbala’ was first printed in his lifetime in the year 5599. Fifteen years after his petira, in the year 5640, the sefer was published in a second edition, updated and expanded with sections that had been omitted from the first edition.
In addition to this sefer Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi also authored a commentary to the order of prayer which was published in the sefer ‘Iyun Tefila’. This commentary was printed together with the commentary ‘Derech Chaim’ by the Gaon Rabbi Yaakov of Lissa (the Nesivos haMishpat).
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi was summoned to the Heavenly Yeshiva on the 4th of Nissan in the year 5625 at the age of eighty.
In the year 5604 the ‘Rabbis’ of the reform movement held a convention in the city of Braunschweig. During the course of their meetings, they decided on various reforms they wished to make to the Jewish religion, and endeavoured to promote the spreading of their movement. The decisions they reached included the abolition of the Kol Nidrei prayer and the permissibility of inter-faith marriages, as long as the children would be educated as Jews. However, this condition was simply a farce, since according to the law of the land, it was forbidden to educate children as Jews if one of the parents was not Jewish.
The holy Malbim was at the forefront of those who forcefully opposed the reform convention and its conclusions. In the introduction to his commentary on Sefer Vayikra, he mourns the terrible situation thus;
“The holy Torah of HaShem sobs her lament; tears wet her cheeks. Her children, her dear ones have betrayed her; some of her defenders in Ashkenaz have been consumed by fire by those who rose to attack HaShem. And they rose and united to uproot the religion and its statutes; they dealt secretively. These many plain people glorified themselves with the title ‘rav’; they gathered together in the town of Braunschweig, in the depths of the valley of demons and foxes, their tails as burning embers…..”
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi also took a part in the condemnation of the convention and was determined to wage a war against it and its organizers.
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi is also known by the title of his sefer, ‘HaKsav veHaKabbala’. His purpose in writing such a sefer was to demonstrate the connection between the Oral and Written Laws, hence its name; ‘Ksav’ is the written law and ‘Kabbala’ is the oral law, passed down over the generations. At the conclusion of his sefer he writes; “For the Written Law and the Oral Law are twin companions; their rectitude is interwoven. If one will but open a little his eyes, he will surely see how these two Torahs are bound together and cannot be separated; both are completely true since they both originate from one faithful servant who transmitted them to the Congregation of Yaakov.”
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi’s commentaries and writings are based on close attention to the nuances and detail of language and grammar, according to which Chazal derived the oral teachings. He refers to many of the great commentators in his sefer, laying a special emphasis on the writings of the Shadal and the Vilna Gaon. At the end of his sefer Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi included an addendum in which he outlines the arguments of those who challenged the immutability of our tradition and demonstrates the falsity of their positions. He writes; “And let this be a witness and a warning to all those who wish to investigate; that they should not dare to contradict those who have gone before us – they should not fall into error – for all the words of our holy ancestors are true and pure and it is our obligation, we who are of poor understanding, to follow in their ways, to pursue the path they have laid out for us, for the Torah comes forth from them.”
‘HaKsav veHaKabbala’ was first printed in his lifetime in the year 5599. Fifteen years after his petira, in the year 5640, the sefer was published in a second edition, updated and expanded with sections that had been omitted from the first edition.
In addition to this sefer Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi also authored a commentary to the order of prayer which was published in the sefer ‘Iyun Tefila’. This commentary was printed together with the commentary ‘Derech Chaim’ by the Gaon Rabbi Yaakov of Lissa (the Nesivos haMishpat).
Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi was summoned to the Heavenly Yeshiva on the 4th of Nissan in the year 5625 at the age of eighty.
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