The Chafetz Chaim - the Life and Works of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin

Few leaders so capture the imagination of their people that their reputations, even their legends, continue to grow generations after they are gone. The Chafetz Chaim -- Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan of tiny Radin, Poland -- was such a man. He transcended titles, movements, regions, factionalism. Revered by all, he was consumed by two loves: for his Maker and for his people. He lived for nearly a hundred productive, selfless years, and during that time he was teacher and guide to four generations. Scholars respected him as a phenomenal sage, gnarled laborers regarded him as a witty friend and neighbor, indigent students loved him as a surrogate father. He died in 1933, but his imprint on Jewish posterity intensifies steadily. Halachist, Talmudist, ethicist, educator, leader, author, innovator, diplomat, saint -- the Chafetz Chaim did so many things so well that the range of his activity and achievement is mind-boggling. For decades, the monumental work of Rabbi Moses M. Yoshor has been the definitive biography of the saint and sage of Radin. Rabbi Yoshor was not only a student of the Chafetz Chaim, but was also close to the family. Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, the world-renowned sage of Vilna who was the Chafetz Chaim¿s most intimate contemporary, wrote that the author of this biography had succeeded in capturing the essence of the great gaon and tzaddik, and in presenting the reader with an accurate portrait of a man who inspired love and reverence for nearly a century.…