[1] Along with some other pupils of the Vilna Gaon, he is credited with having revitalized the Ashkenazi community in what is now Israel (then the Ottoman province of Damascus Eyalet), by immigrating to Jerusalem in 1809.
Rivlin's son-in-law was the philanthropist and businessman Shmarihu Luria of Mohilev, the father-in-law of Rabbi David Friedman of Karlin and Yehiel Michal Pines.
In 1809, Rivlin, as the head of a group of the students of the Gra, immigrated to the Land of Israel.
He was also the author of the esoteric text known as Kol HaTor, that describes the 999 footsteps of the Messiah's arrival.
[1] Until approximately the 1980s the book was preserved only in manuscript form, when it began to be published in stages.