Background
Bom in Lomza, Poland,on December 3, 1888, Herzog later lived in Leeds, England, and Paris, France, where his father served in rabbinical positions.
Bom in Lomza, Poland,on December 3, 1888, Herzog later lived in Leeds, England, and Paris, France, where his father served in rabbinical positions.
He pursued rabbinical studies on his own, and by the age of sixteen had completed study of the entire Talmud. Herzog also devoted himself to secular studies, and received a doctorate in literature from London University for his thesis on “The Dyeing of Purple in Ancient Israel.”
He served as rabbi in Belfast (1916—1919) and in Dublin, the capital of Ireland (1919—1936). He was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State, and forged excellent relations with its politcal and ecclesiastical leaders.
In 1936, Herzog was elected to succeed Abraham Isaac Kook as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine. Settling in Jerusalem in 1937. Herzog was soon caught up with the difficult problems that beset the country’s Jewish community. He made numerous journeys to Europe both during and after the Holocaust to return Jewish children who had been placed for safekeeping in Christian homes and institutions to their people.
He published the first two volumes of his planned five-volume work, "Main Institutions of Jewish Law" (1936, 1939). Three volumes of his extensive responsa, entitled "Hekhal Yitshak", appeared posthumously (1960-1972). These arc a valuable source of rabbinic guidance for contemporary issues.
Herzog worked incessantly to guide the Orthodox community after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. He had to deal with a host of halakhic problems which had been purely academic since the fall of the Second Commonwealth. Among these was the observance of the Sabbath and dietary laws within the framework of a modern state and society. Above all, he struggled to secure recognition for halakhic standards in the spheres of marital and personal status.