R. Zevi Hirsch Chajes (1805–1855), rabbinic scholar. R. Chajes was born in Brody, Galicia, where he studied Talmud and rabbinics under R. Ephraim Zalman Margulies and other prominent rabbis. His father was a highly educated banker who resided for fifteen years in Florence before settling in Brody. The boy was taught French, German, and Italian by his father, and also instructed in secular subjects such as natural sciences, history, and Latin. He mastered the two Talmuds and their commentaries when he was still very young, and at the same time became familiar with medieval Jewish philosophic literature. Ordained at the age of 22, he was elected to the rabbinate of the important community of Zolkiew. Here he formed an intimate friendship with the philosopher Nahman Krochmal, a resident of the town. Krochmal exerted an influence on R. Chajes' extraordinary knowledge which was reflected in his subsequent writings. R. Chajes devoted his efforts to introducing modern critical methods in talmudic and cognate studies, de-emphasizing pilpul, but without sacrificing Orthodox principles. He was the only rabbi of the old school who voluntarily submitted to a university examination (required by the Austrian law of 1845), as a result of which he earned a doctorate. R. Chajes supported plans for agricultural schools for Galician youth. He was a vigorous champion of a more modern approach to Jewish education. In 1852 he was elected chief rabbi of Kalish (Kalisz), Poland, but could not withstand the opposition of the hasidic and anti-Haskalah elements in that community. Being an Austrian subject, he also encountered hostility from the Russian authorities, and he left Kalish to return to Zolkiew shortly before his death. Despite his leanings toward Haskalah and secular studies, he was a staunch defender of Orthodoxy. Chajes opposed the Reform Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick (1844) in a monograph entitled Minhat Kena'ot (1849).

דרכי הוראה מדבר בו ... בהתנהגות החכמים בהוראות ודינים, ובעניני המנהגים, ואיזה תשובות ... לשאלות ... משכילי זמנינו. ממני ... צבי הירש חיות חופ"ק זאלקווא והגליל ... בשנת ולהורות את ב'נ'י' י'ש'ר'א'ל' את כל החקים אשר דבר אליהם ה' ביד משה

בראשי העמודים: דרכי ההוראה. יג דף: הוספות לספרי; תשובה להגאון מהר"מ [ר' משה] סופר ... להסיר השגותיו אשר שלח לי על ספרי תורת נביאים [זאלקווא תקצ"ו]. בעמ' האחרון: מכתב ר' משה סופר, מיום כז במרחשון תקצ"ח, בעניין הדפסת שתים מתשובותיו למחבר.