Zvi Hirsch Kalischer

Zvi (Zwi) Hirsch Kalischer
Zvi Hirsch Kalischer
Born	(1795-03-24)March 24, 1795 Lissa, Prussian Province of Posen (today Leszno, Poland)
Died	October 16, 1874(1874-10-16) (aged 79) Thorn, Prussia (today Toruń, Poland)
Occupation	Rabbi

Zvi (Zwi) Hirsch Kalischer (24 March 1795 – 16 October 1874) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who expressed views, from a religious perspective, in favour of the Jewish re-settlement of the Land of Israel, which predate Theodor Herzl and the Zionist movement. He was the grandfather of Salomon Kalischer.

Kalischer was born in Lissa in the Prussian Province of Posen (now Leszno in Poland). Destined for the rabbinate, he received his Talmudic education from Jacob of Lissa and Rabbi Akiva Eiger of Posen.

After his marriage he left Jacob of Lissa and settled in Thorn, a city on the Vistula River, then in Prussia and now Toruń, in northern Poland, 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 of Rabbinatsverweser ("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.

In his youth he wrote Eben Bochan, a commentary on several juridical themes of the Shulkhan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat (Krotoschin, 1842), and Sefer 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; the Sefer ha-Berit commentary on the Pentateuch; the Sefer Yetzi'at Mitzrayim commentary on the Passover Pesach Haggadah; Chiddushim on several Talmudical treatises; etc. He also contributed largely to Hebrew magazines, as Ha-Maggid, Tziyyon, Ha-'Ibri, and Ha-Lebanon.