Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman,[1] (Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן) known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra ("Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu"), ((גר"א (גאון רבינו אליהו) (b. Vilnius April 23, 1720, d. Vilaus October 9, 1797)[2], was an exceptional Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic world Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ha'Gaon ha'Chasid mi'Vilna, "the saintly genius from Vilnius."
He was one of the most influential Rabbinic authorities since the Middle Ages, and – although he is counted among the sages known as the Acharonim – he is held by many authorities after him as belonging to the Rishonim (Rabbinic authorities of the Middle Ages). Large groups of people, including many yeshivas, uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites (minhag), the "minhag ha-Gra," which is named for him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailing Ashkenazi minhag in Jerusalem. The Gaon wrote also on mathematics, being well-versed in the works of Euclid and encouraging a pupil, Rabbi Baruch of Shklov, to translate the great mathematician's works into Hebrew.
Born in Vilnius, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Gaon displayed extraordinary talent while still a child. By the time he was twenty years old, rabbis were submitting their most difficult halakhic problems to him for legal rulings. He was a voluminous author, writing such works as glosses on the Babylonian Talmud and Shulchan Aruch known as Biurei ha-Gra ("Elaboration by the Gra"), a running commentary on the Mishnah (Shenoth Eliyahu ("The Years of Elijah")), and insights on the Pentateuch entitled Adereth Eliyahu ("The Splendor of Elijah"). Various Kabbalistic works have commentaries in his name, and commentaries on the Proverbs and other books of the Tanakh were written later on in his life. None were published in his lifetime.
When Hasidic Judaism became influential in his native town, the Vilna Gaon joined the rabbis and heads of the Polish communities known as the Mitnagdim, to curb Hasidic influence. In 1777 one of the first excommunications against the Hasidim was launched in Vilna.
As it states in the Mishna in Tractate Peah (1:1): "The study of Torah is equal to all of the mitzvos", the Gaon encouraged his chief pupil, Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, to found a yeshiva (college) in which rabbinic literature should be taught. The yeshiva was opened at Volozhin in 1803, some years after the Gaon's death, and revolutionised Torah study, with resulting impacts on all of Orthodox Jewry.
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antiantichrist
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:37:01 GM
It seems that . ben. Duji was possessed of messianic delusions of his own in that he claimed that the time had come in which God would gather Israel, His people from all lands to Jerusalem, the holy city, and that . Solomon Ben. Duji was ...
