Yitzchok Isaac Krasilschikov - Early Years

Early Years

Born in 1888 in the small Belarusian town of Kritchev to Rabbi Dov Ber Krasilschikov, he studied in the Mir yeshiva under the renowned Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Kamai, who was his primary teacher and mentor. Before the Communist Revolution in Russia, Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac served as the Rabbi of Heditz, then of Poltava, the town from which he gained acclaim as the 'Gaon of Poltava'. It was there, in 1926, that he printed Tevunah, the first volume of his commentary on the Rambam, which he had written when he was but 23 years old. This was the last Jewish religious work published in Communist Russia. During World War II he managed to avoid the Nazis by residing in Siberia.

When the Communist authorities increased their persecution of those who studied Torah, primarily targeting the great rabbis of Russia, Rabbi Krasilschikov left the rabbinate and settled in Moscow, where he took a job as an accountant. He lived with his wife in a modest little apartment near the Kremlin, where, after each day working for the government, he returned home to immerse himself in Torah study during the night. It was there that the last rabbis of Russia came to hear the Torah emanating from his mouth. He ate only dry foods, for there was also a non-Jewish woman who cooked non-Kosher food in his kitchen (it was a communal kitchen, shared by those in the apartment complex). He did not cease wearing his rabbinic-style clothes, and throughout his life he acted like a Rabbi from a generation of long ago.

Rabbi Krasilschikov is survived by two daughters who currently live in Brooklyn, New York.