Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes, known by the acronym Maharatz Chajes, was born in Brody, Galicia, on 28 Cheshvan 5566 (November 20, 1805). His father, Rabbi Meir, a wealthy merchant and banker, descended from Rabbi Yitzchak Chajes, author of Zera Yitzchak. A child prodigy, he knew almost the entire Tanach by heart. He studied Torah under the rabbis of Brody, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Heller, Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Rabbi Elazar Landau, and also learned French, German, Italian and some Latin from his father, together with a grounding in natural sciences and history, a rare thing among observant Jews of the time.

In 5588 (1828), at the age of 23, he was appointed rabbi of Zolkiew (Zhovkva), where Rabbi Nachman Krochmal lived; his ties with Krochmal drew the hostility of the chassidim. He remained there for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1846, when Austrian law required rabbis to hold a university degree, he passed examinations in philosophy and received the degree of magister from the University of Lvov. In 5612 (1852) the community of Kalisz, in Poland, invited him to become its rabbi.

Faithful to tradition while approaching study with a new method, he defended the authority of the Oral Torah against the critiques of the maskilim and fought the Reform movement. In his Minchat Kenaot he opposed the decisions of the Reform conference of Brunswick of 1844 (instrumental music on Shabbat, abolition of the prohibition of kitniyot on Pesach, changes to synagogue customs). As a halachic authority he forbade wigs for women, even widows and divorcees. He exchanged warm letters with the Chatam Sofer.

Works: Torat Neviim, Ateret Tzvi, Darchei Horaah, Mevo HaTalmud (a methodical introduction to the Talmud), Responsa Maharatz Chajes, Matbea HaBerachot, Avodat HaMikdash, Tiferet LeMoshe and Minchat Kenaot. His glosses on the Talmud, printed in the standard editions since 5600 (1840), including the Vilna Shas, are studied in every yeshiva. Most of his writings were collected in Kol Kitvei Maharatz Chajes (Jerusalem, 5718).

In 1855 a cholera epidemic struck Kalisz and afflicted the Rav and his wife. After taking the waters at Marienbad he returned to Zolkiew and then went to Lvov in search of medical care. He passed away there at the age of 49, on 30 Tishrei 5616 (October 12, 1855), and is buried in the old Jewish cemetery of Lvov. Among his grandsons were Rabbi Tzvi Peretz Chajes, chief rabbi of Vienna, and Shaul Chajes, archivist of the Vienna community.