Chofetz Chaim החפץ חיים
author of the "Mishnah Berurah" and the laws of forbidden speech, moral authority of his generation
Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohen lived in the small town of Radin, kept a shop—his wife sold, he checked the scales and the accounts—and refused rabbinical office. He was known by the title of his first book, "Chofetz Chaim", from the verse "Who is the man who desires life… guard your tongue from evil".
That book did the impossible: it gathered the laws of forbidden speech, scattered through Talmud and Rishonim, into a systematic code with numbered paragraphs, like the laws of kashrut. What everyone had taken for an unavoidable part of life turned out to be a detailed legal field. A century later thousands study these books daily.
His second work is the "Mishnah Berurah", a six-volume commentary on the Orach Chaim section of the Shulchan Aruch—prayer, Sabbath, festivals, daily life. Lucid, weighing opinions and reaching a practical conclusion, it became the accepted guide of the Ashkenazi world.
He also wrote for Jewish soldiers in the Russian army and on the laws of the Temple, preparing kohanim for an imminent redemption.
Chain of transmission
Chatam Sofer → Chofetz Chaim
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Mishnah Berurah — the practical digest on Orach Chaim
- Likkutei Halakhot — his work on the order of Kodashim
- Chafetz Chaim — the first book in history on the laws of speech
- Shemirat HaLashon — its ethical sequel
Basis: documents and evidence.