Background
Fradkin was born in Liadi, Vitebsk Region, Russian Empire (today Belarus), the city of the founder of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, after whom Rabbi Fradkin was named.
Fradkin was born in Liadi, Vitebsk Region, Russian Empire (today Belarus), the city of the founder of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, after whom Rabbi Fradkin was named.
After marrying, Fradkin traveled to study from Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef of Drivin, where he became a great scholar. He resolved not to be sustained from the position of rabbi, but after losing all his possessions, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn instructed him to apply for the position of rabbi in Polotzk, Poland, to which Fradkin was later appointed in 1855. He said that Rabbi Fradkin was so knowledgeable that he knew how many times the letter vav appears in the Talmud.
The fifth Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, also held Fradkin in high esteem, and said of him, “even in the earlier generations he would have been considered a gaon!”
After staying in Polotzk for thirteen years, in 1868 Fradkin was appointed as rabbi of Lublin.
This was a great honor, for only very few were allowed to be appointed as rabbis there. Fradkin was a great posek, as can be seen from the testimony of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn: “I am busy and unable to respond.. pose the question to Rabbi Zalman of Polotzk (ie, Rabbi Fradkin).
You can rely on him.” Fradkin gathered the thousands of his responsa into his monumental work,, published in two volumes (Warsaw, 1883, Jerusalem, 1909).