Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer רבי צבי הירש קלישר

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer was rabbi of Thorn for forty years and refused a salary for it all his life. He is known for the book that appeared in 1862—Derishat Zion, the Seeking of Zion.

The argument he conducted was not political but halakhic. He was answered: the return is the Messiah's affair and must not be hurried. He replied with an examination: the Talmud, the Ramban and other Rishonim speak of the commandment to settle the Land, and nowhere is it said to be deferred. The beginning of redemption, he wrote, comes "little by little", in the natural order of things—like a sunrise, not like lightning.

Deeds followed: he pressed for the purchase of land, supported the founding of the Mikveh Israel agricultural school in 1870, and became one of those on whom Hovevei Zion later leaned. Beside him, from the other edge of Europe, Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai was saying the same—and each knew of the other.