Yisrael Meir Kagan
Polish rabbi (1838–1933)
Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan (February 6, 1838 – September 15, 1933) was a Lithuanian rabbi, posek, and ethicist whose works are widely influential in Orthodox Jewish life. He was known popularly as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book with that title on lashon hara, and was also well known for the Mishnah Berurah, his book on ritual law.
Biography
Kagan was born on February 6, 1838, in Dzienciol (Yiddish: זשעטל, romanized: Zhetl), Grodno Governorate in Russian Empire (today Dzyatlava in Belarus), and died on 15 September 1933 in Raduń (Yiddish: ראַדין, romanized: Radin), Nowogródek Voivodeship in Second Polish Republic (now in Belarus). When Kagan was ten years old, his father, Aryeh Z'ev Kagan (Poupko), died during a cholera epidemic at the age of 46. His mother moved the family to Vilnius in order to continue her son's Jewish education. While in Vilnius, Kagan became a student of Jacob Barit. Kagan's mother, Dobrusha, remarried Reb Shimon Epstein, and moved to Radin.
At 17, he married Frieda Kagan (Epstein), the daughter of his stepfather, and settled in Radin. Later in life, he would revert his name back to Kagan. This is why there are a number of letters of his extant that he signed as Poupko and others as Kagan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Yisrael Meir Kagan” is polish rabbi (1838–1933). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Yisrael, Meir and Kagan, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “polish rabbi (1838–1933)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q733140. VIAF identifies the subject as 100921459. The Library of Congress control number is n50043806. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838 and 1933.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Yisrael Meir Kagan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Yisrael Meir Kagan primary sources, Yisrael Meir Kagan archive and Yisrael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yisrael Meir Kagan”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Yisrael Meir Kagan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.