Born in Valatshisk (or Volochisk, Volhynia) in Tashkent, Malbim was orphaned from his father at age six and raised by Rav Yehuda Leib, Av Beis Din of Valatshisk. He studied under Rav Moshe Segal Horowitz, author of Emek HaSidim. He was renowned as a genius in Torah and became known as the illui of Volhynia. He became a gifted orator and darshan even at a young age. Later, he would receive wisdom in Kabbalah from Rav Tzvi Hirsch of Zidatshuv and become a master of hidden and revealed Torah.
He married the daughter of Rav Chaim Auerbach, Av Beis Din Luntschitz and author of Divrei Mishpat on Choshen Mishpat. After his marriage at age 14 ended in divorce, the Malbim immersed himself in Torah study. It was in Luntschitz that he toiled night and day working on his magnum opus and first halachic work, Artzos Hachaim, which is his famed commentary to the Shulchan Aruch.
In 1834 he traveled throughout Europe, visiting Pressburg, Trieste, Amsterdam, and Breslau in order to publicize Artzos Hacḥaim. He gained much acclaim from gaonim and gedolim for this great work. His journeys also included visits to other prominent rabbis of his day.
In 1837 he served in his first post as rabbi of Wreschen near Posen (Pozna). There, he married a young widow, Chayah, the daughter of the wealthy businessman Feivel Opochinsky of Luntshitz (Łęczyca).
In Tashkent he was appointed rav of Vereshna. The congregants of Posen offered him the post once held by Rav Akiva Eiger but he declined and remained in Vereshna where in 1839, he published Artzos Hashalom on dersuh and aggadah and wrote Shirei Henefesh on Shir Hashirim.
He published Artzos Hashalom, a collection of nine derashos and continued work on the second volume of Artzos Hacḥaim (published in 1860). Malbim became rav of the larger town of Kempen in 1841 where he served for 17 years, becoming known as the “Maggid of Kempena” or “the Kempener.”
Since the Polish towns of Wreschen and Kempen had been incorporated into Prussia, Malbim learned German in order to earn Prussian citizenship.
In 1858 Malbim accepted an invitation from Bucharest to become chief rabbi of Romania where he remained for five years. There, he began to wage a campaign against the maskilim (apostates), the opponents of true Torah. He also began work on his sefer, HaTorah v’Hamitzvah on the sifra and mikra kodesh on Tanach.
Battling Reform Judaism, he withdrew funding from their schools, halted the choral temple’s construction, and even prohibited kosher butchers from selling to those who did not observe Shabbos. In response, the influential reformers attacked Malbim, denouncing him as a fanatic. They turned to the government authorities to accuse him of impeding Jewish assimilation into society, for harboring unpatriotic leanings, and of blaspheming Christianity in his commentaries.
The government responded in 1862 by revoking Malbim’s title as chief rabbi and banning him from saying derashos. They also withdrew the Bucharest Jewish community’s authority to raise taxes and manage its own affairs.
The struggle for authority in the community continued until one Shabbos, in the midst of his derasha, Malbim was arrested on false charges. He was imprisoned and ultimately expelled from Romania in 1864. Unwilling to capitulate, Malbim traveled to Constantinople to sue the Romanian government, demanding reinstatement and back wages. He received support from Sir Moses Montefiore and from the Prussian consulate, which protested his mistreatment as a Prussian national. He also traveled to Paris to enlist the help of Adolphe Crémieux (president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle) who sent a protest letter directly to the Romanian ruler, Alexandru Cuza. Malbim won reparations on condition that he officially resign as rabbi of Romania.
After six months in Paris (where in 1865 he published, HaLevanon, an autobiography detailing his Romanian tribulations), Malbim returned to Luntshitz supported by an inheritance left by his recently deceased father-in-law. He remained there 13 years. When the family business failed, due to being managed by a dishonest partner, Malbim returned to the rabbinate.
He continued to clash with reformers and maskilim, and soon found himself at odds as well with chassidim who were suspicious of his philosophical bent. In 1869, he became rabbi of Kherson (Ukraine) and in 1870 he returned to Luntshitz to serve as rabbi there. Yet, machlokes caught up with him and he left Luntschitz for Chersan and then Mogilev (or Mahilyow; Belarus Russia) where he served as rabbi from 1872 to 1875.
Eventually, the libels of the reformers caught up with him there and the Russian government banned him from all their provinces. He left for Koenigsberg. His final post was in Königsberg (Kaliningrad) from 1875 to 1879. He passed away in 1879 and was laid to rest in Kiev en route to another rabbinic post in Kremenchug (Ukraine). His kever remains unknown due to the fear of reprisal from his many opponents. Rather, they buried him in an unmarked grave and placed a false matzeiva over an empty grave as a marker to fool anyone who would try to desecrate his place of burial.
His magnum opus, Hatorah V’Hamitzvah is a famous commentary on Tanach which is studied worldwide to this day.
