Vilna Gaon
Was already in his lifetime; Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, called the Gaon of Vilna, († October 9, 1797 in Vilnius, Lithuania, Poland - born April 23 1720 in Selez, Poland - Lithuania in the near Brest, Belarus today ) esteemed Jewish scholar versatile. He is regarded as the epitome of Ashkenazi Jewry Lithuanian embossing. His comments to the Torah and Talmud, which dealt with a wide range of religious and social issues today are standard works of Jewish scholarship.
Life
As the son of a respected Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon family enjoyed from early youth a comprehensive education. After a six-month study of the Talmud in Kėdainiai he devoted himself in Vilnius in self-study, among others, the Kabbalah and numerous scientific problems. After five years wandering through Poland and Germany in 1745, he returned back to Vilnius, which was a center of Jewish learning at the time. Through his extensive knowledge he soon earned a good reputation both among scholars, as well as the people, also thanks to his ascetic lifestyle. It awarded him the title Gaon, the " way ".
Until about 1760 he studied and worked very withdrawn. He was known for his modesty and generosity. From 1760 he began teaching students in private meetings. The most famous product of his teaching was Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, who founded the famous Volozhin yeshiva after the death of the Gaon. It remains unclear what Elijah Gaon moved, in 1783 to cancel his emigration to Palestine after a few months and go back to Vilnius.
The Gaon was a strong advocate of the orthodox doctrine, which gave the literal, rational interpretation of the Torah and the laws of Halacha priority. The newly created doctrine of Hasidism, which particularly emphasized the feeling and mysticism, he refused ( Misnagdim ). He held it for the learning Torah enemy flow and let in 1772 and 1782 saying the spell over the Hasidim, which was joined by all Lithuanian communities. Attempts by Schneur Zalman of Ljadi, the founder of Lubavitcher Chassidim to meet him for a discussion about the legitimacy of the Hasidic movement, he dismissed. In addition, he forbade the consumption of meat, which had been geschächtet of Hasidic Schächtern, forbade marriages between Hasidic Jews and members of his own community in 1794 and had the book Zawaat Ribasch ( " Testament of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov ", the founder of Hasidism ) burned publicly in Vilnius. After the death of Elijah Ben Solomon in 1797 it came in Vilnius to serious clashes between supporters of the two directions, which resulted in the establishment of their own communities of Hasidim.
The Gaon saw the natural sciences as essential for understanding the Torah. However, any change of the Halakhah, as they sought the early Haskalah, he rejected.
His first wife, daughter of a merchant, whom he married at the age of 18 years, moved eight children together great. The sons were, in turn, rabbis, and the daughters married rabbis. Adults grandson of the Gaon of Vilna are especially known 43, great-grandson (born about 1800) 143 This generation was part of the Jewish population boom, in which the number of offspring per generation multiplied. So counted the seventh generation descendant of the Gaon, born in 1900, already some 13,000 people.
Following in the footsteps of the Vilna Gaon, there was an upturn in the traditional rabbinic education in Poland - Lithuania and it came centers of Talmudic studies, the great yeshivot as the Volozhin, who became a bastion against the onset of Haskalah and assimilation.
In the memorial stone of the Gaon of Vilna believing Jews stuck a piece of paper with prayers to God.