Commentators:R. Meir Leibush Weiser (Malbim)/0

R. Meir Leibush Weiser (Malbim)

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Malbim

Name	R. Meir Leibush b. Yechiel Michel Weiser, Malbim ר' מאיר ליבוש בן יחיאל מיכל וייזר, מלבי"ם
Dates	1809-1879
Location	Russia / Romania
Works	Commentary on most of Tanakh, Yair Or, Eretz Chemdah, Artzot HaShalom, Artzot HaChayyim
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by
Impacted on

Background¹

Life

• Name – 
  • Hebrew name – רבי מאיר לייבוש בן יחיאל מיכל וייזר, known by the acronym מלבי"ם
  • _ name – 
• Dates – 1809-1879
• Location – Malbim was born in Volochysk, Volhynia, and lived in Wreschen (Posen), Breslau, Kempen, Bucharest, Paris, Lencziza (Russian Poland), Kherson, Moghilef, and Konigsberg. He also traveled widely throughout Europe.
• Occupation – Malbim served in rabbinic positions in many locations throughout Europe.² During his nineteen year tenure in Kempen,³ Malbim learned German and began studying the sciences, logic, philosophy (with a special interest in Kant), history, and geography.⁴ While serving in Bucharest, Malbim’s efforts to set halakhic standards and encourage his congregants to become more observant, and his fervent opposition to Reform Judaism, raised the ire of wealthy community leaders. These leaders made false accusations leading to Malbim’s imprisonment and then expulsion from Romania. Similar incidents occurred in other locations where Malbim served as rabbi, as Malbim continued to stand on principle, defend Orthodoxy, and oppose Reform through his communal leadership and literary activity.
• Family – Malbim’s father died when he was six years old, and his mother remarried to R. Yehudah Leib of Volochysk. Malbim married at the age of 14, and fathered a son and daughter, but divorced soon after. In 1838, he married the daughter of R. Hayyim Auerbach of Leczyca. His son, Aharon, tragically died in 1862.
• Teachers – R. Yehudah Leib of Volochysk, R. Moshe Halevi Horowitz,⁵ R. Aryeh Leib Tzintz, R. Tzvi Hirsch Eichenstein of Zhydachiv.⁶
• Contemporaries – Malbim’s life and career (mostly in Eastern Europe) largely overlapped with those of R. Samson Raphael HirschAbout R. Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany, and R. Shemuel David Luzzatto in Italy. Other contemporaries include Chatam Sofer,<fn>From whom Malbim received an approbation for his work Artzot HaChayyim.</fn> and R. Shelomo Zalman Tiktin of Breslau<fn>Who recommended Malbim to head the rabbinic court of Wreschen.</fn>
• Students – 
• Notable events

Works

• Biblical commentaries – 
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – 
  • Halakhic codes – 
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – 
• Jewish thought – 
• Commonly misattributed to – 

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
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Methods

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Themes

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Textual Issues

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• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
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• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

Supercommentaries

¹ This section incorporates information from M. Dell, “פרשנות אורתודוקסית לתורה בעידן של תמורות – הפולמוס בפירושיהם של רי"צ מקלנבורג ומלבים”, (Ph.D. diss.; Bar Ilan University, 2008), S. Z. Schaechter, “The Malbim, His Literary Work and Thought”[Hebrew] (Ph.D. diss.; Hebrew University, 1983), and N. H. Rosenbloom, Malbim: Exegesis, Philosophy, Science and Mysticism in the Writings of Rabbi Meir Lebush Malbim [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1988). An important source for biographical information is Malbim’s own introduction to his work Artzot HaChayyim.

² See above, Location.

³ Beginning in 1840.

⁴ See Schaechter, Malbim: 12.

⁵ Head of the Volochysk rabbinical court.

⁶ A prominent Hassidic rebbe, with whom Malbim studied Kabbalah.