Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes—Maharatz Chajes רבי צבי הירש חיות — מהר"ץ חיות

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes was rabbi of Zolkiew near Lemberg for almost thirty years, then of Kalisz. A rabbi among rabbis: his responsa, his court, his yeshiva. But he is remembered for something else—as the man who, first in his world, undertook to explain the Talmud not only from within but also in terms of how it came to be.

The Mevo ha-Talmud—Introduction to the Talmud—examines what the oral law and the ordinances of the sages are, how to tell law from aggadah and how to read aggadah, where variant readings in the text come from. His glosses on the tractates—short notes checking a passage against its parallels and its source—are printed in the margins of the Vilna edition and stand there beside the Maharsha.

He corresponded with the scholars of his century and read their books, but treated scholarship as a tool, not a judge: the Torah remained Torah for him, and research a way of reading it more attentively. He was argued with from the left and from the right; both still read him.