Ze'ev Wolf of Zhitomir

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ZE'EV WOLF OF ZHITOMIR

ZE'EV WOLF OF ZHITOMIR (d. 1800), ḥasidic preacher, disciple of *Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech. His book, Or ha-Me'ir (Korets, 1787), is important for its wealth of material on the history of Ḥasidism and teachings of its founders. R. Ze'ev criticized the behavior of the ẓaddikim of his day who had abandoned simple living for luxury. An opponent of noisy prayer, he contended that one should pray with kavvanah, with the object of elevating one's thoughts and realizing one's insignificance: "One ought to pray with fear and reverence and stand upright and not be heard, and only move the lips" (Or ha-Me'ir, Terumah).

bibliography:

A. Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim he-Ḥadash (1870); Dubnow, Ḥasidut (19602), 203–4; R. Schatz-Uffenheimer, Ha-Ḥasidut ke-Mistikah (1968), index; I. Tishby, in: Zion, 31–32 (1966/67), 41–45.

[Zvi Meir Rabinowitz.]