Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin, the Maharil Diskin, was born in Grodno on 10 Kislev 5579 (1818), the son of Rabbi Binyamin Diskin, rabbi of Volkovisk and later of Łomża. His grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chassid, had gone up to the Land of Israel with the disciples of the Vilna Gaon and settled in Safed. As a young man he befriended Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, his father's student, a friendship that lasted all their lives.

Ordained at eighteen, he succeeded his father as rabbi of Łomża at twenty-five. From 1844 to 1877 he served great communities of the Russian Empire: Mezritch, Kovno, Łomża, Minsk, Shklov and Brisk, whence his title "the Brisker Rav". He was one of the greatest Talmudic geniuses of his time.

In 1877 he moved to Jerusalem, where he became one of the leaders of the Ashkenazi community and a figure of the most uncompromising current of the Old Yishuv. In 1881 he founded the orphanage that bears his name, the Diskin Orphan Home, to take in orphaned children and shield them from foreign missions. The institution still exists. His wife, the "Brisker Rebbetzin", a descendant of the Noda BiYehuda, was herself a figure of great authority.

His responsa and commentaries were published as She'elot uTeshuvot Maharil Diskin. He passed away after Shabbat, on the night of 29 Tevet 5658 (1898), and rests on the Mount of Olives.