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Yitzchak Blazer
יצחק בלאזר
Born	1837 near Vilnius, Russia
Died	1907 Palestine, Ottoman Empire
Notable work	Pri Yitzchak

Yitzchak Blazer (Hebrew: יצחק בלאזר) ‎(1837–1907) was an early important leader of the Musar movement.

He is also sometimes referred to as Rav Itzele Peterburger due to his position as Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg at a time when it was the capital of Russia. he married the mother of the Lomza rav R Moshe Shatskesz when his father was niftar becoming the stepfather of R Moshe Shatskesz Moshe Shatzkes

Background

Blazer was a student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, founder of the Musar movement, under whose direction he was appointed Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg at the age of 25.

Career

Among Blazer's accomplishments, in addition to his own authorship of Pri Yitzchak, a halakhic responsa text, was the publishing of many of Salanter's letters in Or Yisrael ("The Light of Israel"), as well as articles on Musar, Teshuvah, and the life of his teacher, Rav Yisrael Salanter. He also authored Kochvei Ohr.

From 1880 to approximately 1891, he served as the head of the Kovno Kollel in Kaunas, Lithuania, which was founded by Salanter. Under Blazer's direction, the kollel came to be "considered by its contemporaries as a bastion of the Mussar movement," a Jewish ethical movement based in Lithuania within the Russian Empire, and was attacked by the Musar movement's opponents.

He later joined Nosson Tzvi Finkel in leading the Slabodka Yeshiva.

Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horwitz was one of the primary pupils of Rabbi Blazer.

Later years

In 1904 he emigrated to Jerusalem, where Shmuel Salant was Chief Rabbi; during Blazer's last three years they worked together on several communal and charitable projects. Blazer died on 11 Av 5667 (July 21 or 22, 1907).

References

1. ^ "Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer (1837–1907)".
2. Dov Katz, Tenu'at Ha-Musar, vol. 2, p. 222–23.
3. "Letter from the General Committee with the signature of Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer (1905)".
4. Immanuel Etkes, Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement, 274
5. Immanuel Etkes, Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement, 275
6. Ginsburg, Mordechai. "The Musar movement". p. 33. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
7. "Rav Yitzchok Blazer: Master Of Silence".

External links

• R' Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff on Yitzchak Blazer

v t e Musar movement
People	Prewar leaders Yisroel Salanter Simcha Zissel Ziv Yitzchak Blazer Nosson Tzvi Finkel Naftali Amsterdam Yosef Yozel Horwitz Yeruchom Levovitz Reuven Dov Dessler Eliezer Gordon Moshe Rosenstain Naftoli Trop Postwar leaders Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler Gershon Liebman Yechezkel Levenstein Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz Nosson Meir Wachtfogel Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg Shlomo Wolbe Contemporary thinkers Yechiel Perr Ira F. Stone Geoffrey Claussen Alan Morinis David Jaffe Hillel Goldberg
Yeshivot	Kovno Kollel Lomza Yeshiva Novardok Yeshiva Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka) Mir Yeshiva (Belarus) Kelm Talmud Torah Hebron Yeshiva Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim
Books	Musar literature
Practices	Jewish meditation Jewish ethics Tzedakah Teshuvah Niggun
Terms	Mashgiach ruchani
Category

• 1907 deaths
• 19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire
• Musar movement
• 1837 births
• Rabbis from Kaunas