A Eulogizer Of Rav Chaim Volozhin And Supporter Of Maskilim

An obscure Hebrew book I acquired recently led me to find within it some interesting thoughts. Printed in 1821 in Vilna, and titled Nachal Dimah, it contains a lengthy eulogy for R. Chaim Volozhin (1749 – June 14, 1821). It was authored by R. Tzvi Hirsch Katzenelebogen of Vilna. Following the eulogy in this volume, the author inserted his own torah thoughts, with the title Nachal Adanim.

On the verse 30:5 of Yechezkel, which names several different distant lands from Eretz Yisrael, the author, Katzenelebogen, attempts to identify the locals indicated by the prophet in the verse. In his attempt to identify the place Kuv stated in the verse, he postulates that it refers to either Cuba in the West Indies, or some islands near Australia.

R. Tzvi Hirsch Katzenelebogen was born in to a wealthy family in Vilna, though a rabbi and associated with many of the greatest Orthodox rabbis of the day, he was also from the first to embrace Haskalah worldview. Despite authoring classic rabbinic works and lending support to traditional yeshivas, his home was known as a bastion for young budding maskilim and he was a signer of the petition by some Vilna maskilim to the Russian government requesting a ban on traditional Jewish garb.