Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank הרב צבי פסח פרנק

A Kovno Litvak—born in 5633, trained in the Lithuanian yeshivot—he came to the Land of Israel in 5652 with his brother, his sister and a cousin. He became a dayan of the court of Jerusalem in 5667, and from 5696 until his death in 5721 he was rabbi of Jerusalem and head of its court. In all, some sixty years in the same court.

The commandments of the soil. His name is bound above all to what are called the mitzvot dependent on the Land: the sabbatical year, the priestly and tithed portions, orlah, kilayim. For fifteen hundred years they were hardly asked about: there was nobody to ask. When Jewish fields, orchards and greenhouses appeared in the country again, the questions poured in—and a good part of the answers is in his hand. His collections Har Tzvi and Mikra'ei Kodesh still stand in these arguments.

With Rav Kook. He was among those who insisted on Rav Kook's election as chief rabbi, and held to him even when part of the old yishuv turned away. He himself never entered the chief rabbinate: his place was Jerusalem and its court.

He died in 5721, having lived in Jerusalem for nearly seventy years—from the old yishuv into the state, without changing street or office.