Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky
| Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 7, 1845 Kobrin, Russia |
| Died | 1913 |
Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (February 7, 1845 – 1913), known by the acronym Ridvaz or Ridbaz, was a renowned rabbi, Talmudic commentator and educator.
Wilovsky was born in Kobrin, Russia. He was father-in-law of Rabbi Joseph Konvitz, who was president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America in the 1930s and played an instrumental role in ending a kosher butcher strike, and Rabbi Yisroel Yehonasan Yerushamski, the rabbi of Iehumen and father-in-law of Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky.
Wilovsky held Rabbinic posts in Izabelin (1874), Bobruisk (1876), Vilna (1881). Finding that the Vilna position distracted him from his studies, he resigned, and chose to serve as rabbi in a smaller community such as Polotsk (1883), Vilkomir (1887). In 1890 he became chief rabbi of Slutsk, where he established a noted yeshiva in 1896. He took general supervision, appointing Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer as principal.
Wilovsky freely used a copy of the Talmud Yerushalmi which the Vilna Gaon had annotated. After studying the Talmud Yerushalmi for thirty years and working steadily on his commentaries for seventeen years, Wilovsky began the publication of an edition of the Talmud Yerushalmi which included, besides his own, all the commentaries incorporated in former editions.
Since the subscription fund for his publication was exhausted before the fourth order Nezikin, was completed, Wilovsky travelled to the United States in 1900, where he succeeded in securing subscriptions for many sets of the work. Returning to Russia, he dedicated the Nezikin order to his American patrons.
From 1903 to 1905, Wilovsky returned to the United States. This time, he dropped his former name of Willowsky/Willovsky and assumed the name "Ridvaz" (Rabbi Yaakov David ben Ze'ev").
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