Malbim

Life

Meir Loew's father died early (1816 ). According Wininger " Malbim was already in his childhood outstanding mental abilities and was at home in the Bible and the Raschikommentar at the age of five years." The mother married the rabbi of the town, who taught the boy. Malbim but was quickly outgrown these lectures, so that the rabbi Moses Halevi Horowitz, " one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of the time ," took over his training. With 12 years Malbim already wrote Bible commentaries and some Talmudic treatises and poems.

With 14 years Löw was already married, but the marriage was short-lived. He went to Warsaw and was there quickly as the Illui ( the enlightened one ) from Volhynia. Later he married again and was financially supported by his father so that he could devote himself entirely to his literary work. In 1834 he traveled to various locations in Europe ( Bratislava, Wroclaw, Amsterdam), to support of rabbis and recommendations for his work arzot ha - Hayyim ( comments and interpretations to the Shulchan Aruch ) to receive, which was then published in 1837 in Breslau. In 1839 he received the recommendation of the Wrocław Rabbi Zalman Tiktin an appointment to Wreschen.

From 1845 to 1859 he served as a rabbi in Kempen, Posen, where he received the nickname of Kempner Maggid. An appointment as Chief Rabbi of Vilna was not confirmed by the authorities. In 1860, he was, after he had rejected the rabbinate of Satoraljaujhely in Hungary itself, rabbi in Bucharest and then Chief Rabbi of Romania. As a staunch enemy of the reform movement Malbim came into conflict with Jewish and non-Jewish authorities, was covered with false charges and imprisoned. Moses Montefiore was able to secure his release from prison, but Malbim Romania was forced to leave.

Malbim then officiated during a restless wanderings in various Russian communities as a rabbi, but also had a hard time there within Judaism, suffered persecution and slander, by the representatives of Haskalah was rejected too, just like the Hasidim. Due to the invitation of the Mainz community first he went there on the way, but then took a four-year activity in Königsberg as rabbi of the local Russian community, where he was installed with great honor at the same time as the chief rabbi of Königsberg and Mecklenburg.

In Konigsberg, he received appointments in Kremenchug (Ukraine ) as well as to New York, which he declined both. He was then taken up in Vilnius with great honors and was elected rabbi of this important community, the election was not confirmed by the government. Several times he had been denounced as " revolutionary".

1879 Malbim traveled to visit his relatives in Kiev, where he died.

Works, positions and importance

Malbims works are evidence of extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language. He also wrote a book on Hebrew syntax. His major work, however, consists of Bible commentaries, which are among the most extensive examples of traditional exegesis in the 19th century and gained the recognition even in the orthodox religiously oriented Jews of his time. In these comments, he took a stand against the reform Judaism.

In his view, the reform movement undermined the true Judaism. Therefore, he tried to strengthen the position of Orthodox Judaism by knowledge of Hebrew and interpretation of the Bible and to weaken the reformers in these areas where they had provided significant benefits. In his introduction to Pentateuchkommentar HaTorah we- ha - mitzvot to Malbim referred to the reform Synod of Brunswick, in 1844, he a

Called it. To justify his resistance to the reform movement, he said among other things:

From then on he wrote his comments with the aim to prove that

Bibliography (selection)

• Isaiah in perischim, Krotoschin 1849 (Commentary on Isaiah )
• Arzot ha - Hayyim, 2nd ed Warsaw 1865 ( amendments to the Code, Orach Chaim ritual in two parts )
• Arzot haschalom, Warsaw 1864 ( Sermons )
• Likutei schoschanim, Vilnius 1875 ( explanations of biblical synonyms )
• Meshaal umeliza, Paris 1867 ( religious- moral drama)
• Mikra kodesh, 2nd edition, 12 volumes, Warsaw 1874 ( commentary on the prophets and hagiographers )
• Shire ha - nefesh, Warsaw 1876 ( Commentary on the Song of Songs )
• Commentary on the Book of Esther, Warsaw 1878
• Hatorah we- hamizwah, Warsaw 1876-1879 ( Pentateuchkommentar )
• Editions of the halakhic midrashim Mechilta, Sifra and sifre

Literature (selection )

• Ozar Yisrael, Vol VI. , 214, Vienna 1924
• Wininger 1925 et seq, Vol IV, pp. 315-316, sv Meir, Leibusch b. Yechiel Michel
• Isaac Markon, articles Malbim, in: Jewish Encyclopedia, Berlin 1927, Vol III, Sp 1343-1344
• Julius H. Schoeps (ed.), New Dictionary of Judaism, Gütersloh / Munich 1992, p 301
• Biographical Handbook of rabbis, ed. by Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach, edited by Carsten Wilke, Part 1: The rabbis of the time emancipation in the German, Czech and Polish big countries from 1781 to 1871, volume 2, KG Saur, Munich, 2004, 640-642, sv Malbim, Meyer Löbusch