III. Introduction to Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan and the Mishna Berura

L is known about the early life and influences of the Hafetz Hayyim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, and how he came to be commonly viewed as both a leader of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe and the most significant halakhic authority of the first half of the twentieth century.1 These accolades are above and beyond his otherwise well-known reputation as a pious and righteous man about whom legendary stories are told—he seems to have lived the life of a truly ethical and upright human being. From the vast and varied literature that he penned, however, one can catch a glimpse of who he was and how he perceived the world around him, and his perception would lead him to become one of the greatest sages of late nineteenthand early twentieth-century Ashkenazic Jewry.