Elijah ben Solomon Zalman,[1] (Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמןRabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman), also known as the Vilna Gaon[2] (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאוןDer Vilner Goen; Polish: Gaon z Wilna, Gaon Wileński; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gra ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 1720 – Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Lithuanian Jewish Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non-hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries.[3][4][5] He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ha-Gaon mi-Vilna, "the genius from Vilnius".[6]
Through his annotations and emendations of Talmudic and other texts, he became one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. Although he is chronologically one of the Acharonim, some considered him one of the Rishonim[7][8][9]
Large groups of people, including many yeshivas, uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites (minhag), the "minhag ha-Gra", named after him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailing Ashkenazi minhag in Jerusalem.[citation needed]
Born in Sielec in the Brest Litovsk Voivodeship (today Sialiec, Belarus), 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 prolific author, writing such works as glosses on the Babylonian Talmud and Shulchan Aruch known as Bi'urei ha-Gra ("Elaborations by the Gra"), a running commentary on the Mishnah, Shenoth Eliyahu ("The Years of Elijah"), and insights on the Pentateuch entitled Adereth Eliyahu ("The Cloak of Elijah"), published by his son. Various Kabbalistic works have commentaries in his name, and he wrote commentaries on the Proverbs and other books of the Tanakh later on in his life. None of his manuscripts were published in his lifetime.
When Hasidic Judaism became influential in his native town, the Vilna Gaon joined the "opposers" or Misnagdim, rabbis and heads of the Polish communities, to curb Hasidic influence.[citation needed]
While he advocated studying branches of secular education such as Mathematics in order to better understand rabbinic texts, he harshly condemned the study of Philosophy and Metaphysics.[10][11]
^Within recent decades he has been given the surname Kremer. However neither the Vilna Gaon nor his descendants apparently used this surname, which means shopkeeper. It was possibly mistakenly derived from a nickname of his ancestor Rabbi Moshe Kremer. "The Vilna Gaon, part 3 (Review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius)". Marc B. Shapiro
^Yaniv, Samuel (Rabbi) (April 17, 2010). "The Vilna Gaon and his Vision of Redemption". Bar Ilan University. Archived from the original on March 23, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
^Etkes, Immanuel; Green, Jeffrey M. (2002). The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22394-3. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1pnj2v.
^Cohn-Sherbok, Dan; Cohn-Sherbok, Lavinia (1994). Jewish & Christian Mysticism: An Introduction. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85244-259-3.
^Eisenberg, Ronald L. (December 1, 2011). Dictionary of Jewish Terms: A Guide to the Language of Judaism. Taylor Trade Publications. ISBN 978-1-58979-729-1.
^The Threefold step of Academia Europeana: a case of Universitas Vilnensis, 2009, p. 24
^Karelitz, Avraham Yeshaya. קובץ איגרות חזון איש [Collected letters of the 'Chazon Ish'] (in Hebrew). pp. Part one, section 32. אנו מתייחסים להגר"א בשורה של משה רבנו, עזרא, רבנו הקדוש, רב אשי והרמב"ם. הגר"א שנתגלה תורה על ידו כקדוש מעותד לכך שהאיר במה שלא הואר עד שבא ונטל חלקו, והוא נחשב אחד מהראשונים,
^Danzig, Abraham. זכרו תורת משה (in Hebrew). p. 31. רבי אליהו חסיד, הוא היה עיר וקדיש כאחד מן הראשונים
^Tzuzmir, Yekuseil A.Z.H (1882). שו"ת מהריא"ז ענזיל (in Hebrew). Lvov. pp. 40b. ומהר"א מווילנא אשר כחו כאחד הראשונים{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 179:6". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
the VilnaGaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון Der Vilner Goen; Polish: Gaon z Wilna, Gaon Wileński; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gra ("Gaon Rabbenu...
פנוי, chalal חלל), devoid of direct awareness of God's presence. The VilnaGaon held that tzimtzum was not literal, however, the "upper unity", the fact...
it by no means rejected mysticism. The movement's leaders, like the Gaon of Vilna and Chaim of Volozhin, were deeply immersed in kabbalah. Their difference...
sage, the VilnaGaon (Rabbi Elijah Ben Shlomo Zalman [1720–1797]), and his ashes were interred in the relocated grave of the VilnaGaon in Vilna's new Jewish...
Ezra, Rabbeinu Bachya, Rabbi Yaakov Culi (author of Me'am Lo'ez), the VilnaGaon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Ramchal, and Aryeh Kaplan. The acceptance...
"Eliyahu ben Shelomoh Zalman (Gaon of Vilna; 1720–1797), Torah scholar, kabbalist, and communal leader. The Gaon of Vilna... was a spiritual giant, a role...
the gaon was boundless, and after his death Chaim virtually acknowledged no superior. It was with the view of applying the methods of the VilnaGaon that...
VilnaGaon Museum of Jewish History (Lithuanian: Valstybinis Vilniaus Gaono Žydụ Muziejus; Yiddish: דער ווילנער גאון מלוכהשער יידישער מוז) is a Lithuanian...
the VilnaGaon of taking tzimtzum literally and not following Luria fully, though Mitnaggedic Kabbalists rejected this. It seems that the VilnaGaon, who...
supported by the Bier Hetiv, the Pithei Teshuva as well as the VilnaGaon. The VilnaGaon says, "There was never any ban or enactment restricting the study...
Death is the Roman Empire that destroyed the Second Temple, etc. The VilnaGaon interpreted that the kid is the Birthright that passed from Abraham to...
bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and "I will take." The VilnaGaon relates the Four Cups to four worlds: this world, the Messianic age, the...
and Pumbedita VilnaGaon, known as the Gaon of Vilnius Gaon Music Chart, record chart in South Korea Yehoram Gaon, Israeli singer Gaon (film), a 2018...
teacher, the VilnaGaon, ten different versions of a certain passage in the Sefer Yetzira and asked the Gaon to determine the correct text. The Gaon immediately...
(/ˈvɪlniəs/ VIL-nee-əs, Lithuanian: [ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] ; previously known in English as Vilna, see other names) is the capital of and largest city in Lithuania, and the...
the VilnaGaon (in Yiddish, "the genius of Vilna"), Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (1720–1797), to give his rarely used full name, helped make Vilna (modern-day...
under the name Gilyon ha-Shas, and textual notes by Joel Sirkes and the VilnaGaon (see Textual emendations below), on the page together with the text. Commentaries...
the hands before eating bread. However, followers of Rambam or the Gaon of Vilna do recite a blessing. Each participant dips a sprig of parsley or similar...
non-Hasidic Lithuanian tradition. Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi followers of the VilnaGaon and most Chassidim, or those with Hasidic ancestry, do not (as on festivals)...
than "VilnaGaon times"; in practice, there are communities that follow each of those standards. For times in the afternoon, the VilnaGaon's times are...
The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania,...
original pieces from the Great Synagogue of Vilna survived the destruction and are now on display at the VilnaGaon Jewish Museum: a door of the Holy Ark,...
Masters, and the Lithuanian Jewish Orthodox leader and Kabbalist the VilnaGaon; and - amongst others - from the 19th/20th-century: Yosef Hayyim author...
are considered to have been miraculously saved. Moses Isserles and the VilnaGaon rule that women are exempt from the fast. As the Book of Exodus (13:12–15)...
18th-century Lithuanian master scholar and kabbalist, Elijah of Vilna, known as the VilnaGaon, authored a commentary on the biblical Book of Jonah as an allegory...
Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer and conductor (d. 1797) 1720 – VilnaGaon, Lithuanian rabbi and author (d. 1797) 1744 – Princess Charlotte Amalie...
legumes and only prohibited dry legumes, but when the students of the VilnaGaon and Baal Shem Tov came to Israel, they ‘brought with them’ from Europe...
opposition of the Mitnagdic leader, the VilnaGaon seeing it as heretical. Chaim Volzhin, the leading pupil of the VilnaGaon, was at the same time both more...
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