Toporovsky’s Wonder Plow

The elders of Rishon Letzion still remember the otherwise all-but-forgotten Yitzhak Lieb Toporovsky (1866-1938), who revolutionized the traditional wooden plow used in the Holy Land from time immemorial. Even the name of his great-grandson, Boaz Toporovsky, today a Member of Knesset with the “Blue and White” party, means little to most Israelis, who know next to nothing about this humble man whose physical prowess made him a legend. Yitzhak Lieb Toporovsky (Photo courtesy of the Rishon Letzion Museum) A religious Jew from Yekaterinoslav (today’s Dnipro) in Ukraine, Toporovsky started working from early age in a local…