Isser Zalman Meltzer

Isser Zalman Meltzer was born on 5 Adar 5630 (February 6, 1870) in the city of Mir,^[2] in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Republic of Belarus) to Rabbi Baruch Peretz and Miriam Reisel Meltzer.^[3] From the age of 10,^[4] he studied with Yom-Tov Lipman, the rabbi of the city, and at the Mir Yeshiva. In 1884, at the age of 14, he began studying at the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik,^[5] where he remained for seven years.^[2][6]

While at the yeshiva, he became involved in the secret [Orthodox] Ness Ziona Society, part of the Hovevei Zion movement. Together with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, he contributed to the founding of the city of Hadera by buying land for an etrog orchard.

In 1892, at age 22, he married Beila Hinda, daughter of Faivel Frank of Ilukste. During his engagement period, he studied at the Raduń Yeshiva with the Chofetz Chaim. During his studies, he contracted tuberculosis due to his roommate hanging animal skins in the room they were renting, and he was forced to return to his parents' home in Mir. His fiancee's family sent him money to pay for medical treatment while pressuring her to cancel the match. She refused, despite the pessimistic predictions of the doctors, and they married after he had recovered.

In 1894, Melzer was appointed by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel as a maggid shiur at the Slabodka yeshiva, together with his brother-in-law Epstein.^[5] In 1897, Meltzer left Slabodka to lead the Slutsk Yeshiva^[7] which had been established by the Ridvaz in Slutsk.

In 1903, Meltzer was appointed as the rabbi of Slutsk, a position he held for 20 years.^[2] Although he had already been serving as the rosh yeshiva in that city, he had no document of semicha because he had never planned on accepting a position in the rabbinate, but to teach Torah instead.

When the communal leaders resolved to appoint him as their rabbi, Meltzer wrote to his teacher Soloveitchik and to Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, author of the Arukh HaShulkhan, asking them to send him the necessary affirmation. Epstein immediately mailed him a letter of semicha, while Soloveitchik made do with a brief telegram that simply bore the words, "Yoreh yoreh, yodin yodin".^[3]

Meltzer was also a disciple of Yisrael Meir Kagan and Finkel. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Kotler and maternal grandfather of Rabbi Shneur Kotler. He and Rav Aharon fled from Russia to Poland ^[8] at the outbreak of the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution.^[2]

Meltzer, who subsequently emigrated to Eretz Yisrael, was a friend and admirer of Abraham Isaac Kook, the chief rabbi of Israel and a self-avowed supporter of Zionism.^[5] Meltzer once said to the famous sage Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky of Vilna, “We are considered Torah giants only up until the point that we reach the door of Rabbi Kook’s room.”^[9]

In his later years, Meltzer served as the rosh yeshiva of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem.^[2]

He died on Tuesday, 17 November 1953 (10th Kislev 5714) at age 83, exactly 20 years after his brother-in-law Moshe Mordechai, and was interred on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.

Streets in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and Rehovot were named after him

Rabbis who were his students include:

• His son, Zvi Yehuda Meltzer, Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, and the father-in-law of Rabbi Yehuda Amital
• His son, Dr. Feivel Meltzer, a professor of Biblical Hebrew in Israel and contributor to the Da’at Miqra commentary on the Tanach
• His son-in-law, Yitzchack Ben Menachem, Chief Rabbi of Petah Tikva
• His son-in-law, Aharon Kotler, founder of Bais Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, New Jersey
• His granddaughter's husband, Yehuda Amital, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion.
• Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, rosh yeshiva of Kol Torah and leading posek of his time.
• Yisroel Yaakov Fisher
• Shlomo Goren, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.
• Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, founder of Ezras Torah
• Moshe Aharon Poleyeff, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva University.
• Elazar Shach, rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh Yeshiva in Israel, and leader of Lithuanian Jews
• Avraham Yaakov Zelaznik, rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim Yeshiva.
• Shimon Zelaznik, (the above's brother) rosh yeshiva in Yeshivat Shaalvim
• Amram Zaks, rosh yeshiva of the Slabodka yeshiva of Bnei Brak
• Eliezer Waldenberg, leading 20th century posek on medicine and halacha; dayan in Jerusalem.
• Avraham Shapira, rosh yeshiva of Mercaz haRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
• Chai Yitzchok Twersky, Rebbe of Rachmistrivka Borough Park

• Eckman, Lester: History of Yeshivot and White Russia from their Beginnings Until 1945: publ Judaic Research institute, Elizabeth, New Jersey : p 253-259