Rabbi Yisrael Wilk received rabbinic ordination at Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim (MTJ) from the great rabbonim, Rabbi Michel Birnbaum zt”l and Rabbi Dovid Feinstein zt”l. While at MTJ he specialized in the laws of family purity, under the tutelage of Rabbi Elimelech Bluth zt”l, the distinguished talmid of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt”l. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Touro College, from which he graduated with honors, and received the Psychology Award in his graduating year. Rabbi Wilk has dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah – through lecturing and writing – as well as striving to bring meaning, connection, well-being and unity to the Jewish world at large.
Born and raised in New York, USA, he moved to Israel in 1999. Since 2002, he lives with his wife and children in Ramat Bet Shemesh. Rabbi Wilk worked many years on the Avodah Berurah project, a monumental work (still in progress) elucidating many masechtos (tractates) of Talmud, covering all aspects of the Gemora and its commentaries, from simple to complex, from pshat to lomdus. He also edited and annotated the Sefer Hisragshus Halev, by the famed tzaddik of Yerushalayim, Rabbi Yehoshua Tzvi Michel Shapiro zt”l (known as R’ Hirsh Michel), printed by Machon Ahavat Shalom (of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel shlita). In addition, he’s published and edited a number of other seforim and pamphlets, as well as numerous articles in the esteemed Torah journal Moriah, published by Machon Yerushalayim.
Alongside his love for the revealed realm of the Torah, Rabbi Wilk has spent his life learning mussar, machshavah (Jewish thought and philosophy), Chassidus and pnimiyus haTorah (the inner secrets of the Torah). In this field, he has authored the very well-received Sefer HaTzimtzum v’Hametzios and Sefer Moadei Yisroel. In Israel, he developed a close relationship with one of the unique Torah giants of the generation, the great tzaddik, HaRav Seraya Divlitzky zt”l (often spelled Deblitzky). Rav Divlitzky zt”l was recognized as one of the greatest halachic authorities in Eretz Yisroel, and as the world’s biggest expert in minhagim (customs) of the full spectrum of communities around the Jewish world. He was also a world expert in dikduk (grammar). Alongside these areas of expertise, Rav Divlitzky was one of the greatest Kabbalists of recent years. His monumental Kabbalistic work Pesach Einayim HaChodosh has become a basic text for the Kabbalah world today, and all siddurei haRashash printed in the last few decades have been based on his work. Rabbi Wilk had the honor of working on the last volumes of Pesach Einayim HaChodosh, and Rav Divlitzky acknowledges and cites him numerous times in the sefer.
Rabbi Wilk is a primary talmid (student) of the world-renowned Kabbalist, Rabbi Moshe Schatz shlita (of Yerushalayim), and they work closely together in trying to usher in a new consciousness of integration into the Kabbalah and Torah world, as well as into the Jewish world at large.