In 1903 the Ridbaz decided to act on his dream of moving to Eretz Yisrael and opening a yeshivah in Tzfas
Title: “The Exclusive Ridbaz Book Sale”Rav Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, known as the Ridbaz, led an illustrious rabbinic career. As the rav of Slutzk, in 1897 he invited the Alter of Slabodka to establish a yeshivah in the town; the Alter sent him a group headed by Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, and the Slutzk yeshivah was born.
The Ridbaz also invested years of effort in authoring an extensive commentary on the Talmud Yerushalmi; he traveled to America in 1900 to raise funds for completing its publication, returning to Europe soon thereafter.
In 1903 the Ridbaz decided to act on his dream of moving to Eretz Yisrael and opening a yeshivah in Tzfas. In order to finance the plan, he once again traveled to America to sell his seforim. On this trip he was invited to serve as rabbi of Chicago’s immigrant community, on the understanding that the kehillah would eventually pay for his retirement in Eretz Yisrael.
Struggles arising from the low standard of Yiddishkeit and internal community politics led to his departure from Chicago less than a year later, in the summer of 1904. He traveled the United States selling the remaining sets of his Yerushalmi, and then settled down in Tzfas in 1905.
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