Rav Eliyahu HaGaon MiVilna
Founder of Mitnagdut
Born: 1720 in Seltz, Byelorussia.
Died: 1797 in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania.
Buried: Saltoniskiu Cemetery, Vilna
Rav Eliyahu HaGaon MiVilna, or Rabbi Elijah the Vilna Gaon, was an
eighteenth century Lithuanian
Jewish scholar. Though he never accepted an official appointment, he was widely regarded as the Chief Rabbi of Vilna, and was titled its
Gaon. The term translates as "
genius", and hadn't been formally applied since the period of the
Babylonian,
Egyptian, and
North African
Gaonim, approximately the 7th through 11th centuries C.E. Rav Eliyahu is commonly referred to as the "Gra", a Hebrew abbreviarion for "Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu".
The Gra was rightly called a genius. At the age of seven he delivered a lecture in the
Great Synogogue of Vilna, and by the age of ten he had advanced far ahead of any teacher, studying
Talmud,
Kaballah,
mathematics,
astronomy,
history, and
music with famed eagerness and diligence. When he was 35, he was called upon to help resolve the
Eybeschulz / Emden schism, a wildly divisive controversy in which
Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschulz accused
Rabbi Yaakov Emden of writing
amulets containing
Sabbatean inscriptions. Adherents to the Sabbatean
heresy sought to achieve closeness to
God by
sinning, and in the 18th century Eastern European Jewry was convulsed with a paranoia wherein any Rabbi with
mystic inclinations could be accused of Sabbateanism.
Among other contributions to Jewish
scholarship, the Vilna Gaon authored notes correcting
trancription errors in the Talmud and Kaballah. His writtings include commentaries on the following works:
From time to time in his commentaries on the Talmud, the Vilna Gaon would even disagree with that source over its interpretation of the Mishnah, therein picking a fight with his predeccessors by about 1500 years. As a teacher, he also criticized the
stifling educational methods of
pilpul (hair splitting
dialectic) and
chilluk (
sophistry). Under the leadership of the Gaon, Vilna became Europe's premiere center of
Torah study, acquiring the honorific nickname "the
Jerusalem of Lithuania". The Vilna Gaon's student,
Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, founded the
Volozhiner Yeshiva, also an influential institution.
The Vilna Gaon was a fervent opponent of
Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov's
populist Hasidic movement. Hasidism emphasized
ecstatic worship available to the simplest Jews, and its adherents were accused of laxity in observing
Torah law. In 1772, the Vilna Gaon applied a
charem, or ban of
excommunication, to all Hasidim; the ban persisted for 30 years. Part of it reads, "Everywhere they should be torn up by the roots... so that not two of them should remain together." Following the ban's application, the Hasidic leaders
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Lyady tried to see the Gaon, but he refused to meet with them.
The followers of the Vilna Gaon were called Misnagdim (singular: Mitnageid), or "opponents". Today, all
Orthodox Jews either observe Hasidism or
Mitnagdut, "opposition". The
acrimony between the two branches of
Orthodoxy has dulled and each tends to tolerate, even respect, the other. Since the 18th century they have drawn closer together, as Hasidism eventually itself produced a number of scholars and also corrected its counter-legalistic tendencies. However, some members
Hasidic sect of
Chabad-Lubavitch bear a grudge towards the Vilna Gaon for disrespecting their Rabbis.
What follows is an incomplete list of books by the Vilna Gaon; most of them were transcribed by his son
Rabbi Avraham or by his students. These are mostly books of
moral advice and Jewish thought- his commentaries tend to be published alongside and under the name of the
texts that they comment on:
The
Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, at 12
Pamenkalnio Street and
4 Pylimo Street, Vilnius, houses a collection including
ritual objects, and everyday items used or produced by Lithuanian Jews; Jewish documentation - books, letters, posters, cigarette packet pieces with hand written notes, some copies of Ghetto diaries, seals of various organizations, translations, periodicals, proclamations, archival material from the former the USSR; art works by prewar artists B. Michtom, S. Efron, M. Katz, L. Mergashilski, E. Lurje. Also contemporary pieces by A. Jacovskis, B. Bindler, M. Percov, H. Skliutauskaite, M. Levitan-Babiansdkiene, and others.
Sources:
Childhood indoctrination
A.P. Medeivil Jewish History*, as taught by Mrs. Feinberg
The late 90s PBS documentary "A World Apart"
"If not higher than that", a short story by I.L. Peretz
Abrahamson, Eliezer C. http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/vilnagaon.html.
Bowman, Steven. A review of The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and his Image, by Immanuel Etkes.
Levin, Louis. http://beljewhist.virtualave.net/Gaon.htm.
http://www.avotaynu.com/gaontree.html
http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/Vilnius/zydu_muziejus.en.htm
http://judaicaplus.com/stores/vc_list.cfm?DeptID=1&QueryS=H_Vilnagaon
*In response to some confusion, this is not a real Advanced Placement class offered by the College Board. A.P. tests in Medeival and Modern Jewish History classes are administered by Yeshiva University in New York City, and students can recieve college credit at Y.U. for these two classes. I never intended to attend Y.U., but I took A.P. Med. JHist in high school because it was fucked up and interesting.