R' Yechezkel Feivel ben Ze'ev Wolf, who was born on 10 Tamuz in
approximately 5517 (1757), is best known as the author of Toldot
Adam, a biography of R' Zalman of Volozhin (see below).
R' Yechezkel Feivel knew R' Zalman personally from the time they
both spent in Vilna.
Early in his career, R' Yechezkel Feivel was a traveling
maggid/ preacher. His sermons were very well received; R' Yosef
Teomim, author of the halachic work Pri Megadim wrote of him
(beginning with a quote from Yechezkel 1:3, and paraphrasing
verses in Shir Hashirim and elsewhere):
"The word of Hashem came to Yechezkel." He gave him a
skilled tongue. The words of his palate are sweet and he
is all delight. Valuable and honorable sermons - how
well spoken are his statements?! Sweetness drips from
his lips, as he [demonstrated] wondrously and with power
in a number of sermons in the study halls and the large
shuls in our community . . .
In his sermons, R' Yechezkel Feivel often chose to emphasize
the importance of performing acts of kindness. When speaking to
students of Torah, he often quoted the words of the medieval sage
Rabbenu Chananel, who wrote (in his commentary to Avodah Zarah
17b): "If one only studies Torah and does not engage in mitzvot
and in elucidating the halachah, his Torah study is worthless."
R' Yechezkel Feivel died between 1833 and 1836. One of his
sons was R' Velvele, the maggid of Vilna. (Source: Gedolei
Hadorot 528)
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