| Judah Loew Ben Bezalel |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT JUDAH LOEW BEN BEZALEL | |
| philosophers of judaism | |
| early acharonim | |
| 1525 births | |
| 1609 deaths | |
| religion in prague | |
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Within the world of Torah and Talmudic scholarship, he is known for his works on Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Mysticism and his Supercommentary on Rashi 's Torah commentary known as ''Gur Aryeh al HaTorah''. He is also known, especially outside of Judaism, for the story about the Golem , which he supposedly created using mystical magical powers based on the esoteric knowledge of how God created Adam rooted in the Creation Narrative of the first few chapters of the Book Of Genesis (known in Judaism as ''Ma'aseh Bereshit''). According to the legend he did this to defend the Jew s of the Prague Ghetto from Antisemitic attacks against them motivated by false Blood Libel s emanating from certain prejudiced quarters. BIOGRAPHY The Maharal was probably born in Posen (now in Poland ) to Rabbi Bezalel (Loew), whose family originated from the German town of Worms . His uncle Jacob was ''Reichsrabbiner'' ("Rabbi of the ''Reich''") of the Holy Roman Empire , his brother Chaim of Friedberg a famous rabbinical scholar. Traditionally it is believed that the Maharal's family descended from the Babylonian Exilarchs (during the era of the Geonim ) and therefore also from the Davidic Dynasty . He received his formal education in various Yeshiva s (Talmudical schools). He was independently wealthy, probably as a result of his father's successful business enterprises. He accepted a rabbinical position in 1553 as ''Landesrabbiner'' of Moravia at Nikolsburg , directing community affairs but also determining which tractate of the Talmud was to be studied in the communities in that province. He also revised the community statutes on the election and taxation process. Although he retired from Moravia in 1588 at age 60, the communities still considered him an authority long after that. One of his activities in Moravia was the rallying against slanderous slurs on legitimacy (''Nadler'') that were spread in the community against certain families and could ruin the finding of a marriage partner (known as Shidduch im within Orthodox Judaism ) for the children of those families. This phenomenon even affected his own family. He used one of the two yearly grand sermons (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 1583 ) to denounce the phenomenon. He moved back to Prague in 1588, where he again accepted a rabbinical position, replacing the retired Isaac Hayoth. He immediately reiterated his views on ''Nadler''. On 23 February 1592 , he had an audience with Emperor Rudolf II , which he attended together with his brother Sinai and his son-in-law Isaac Cohen; Prince Bertier was present with the emperor. The conversation seems to have been related to Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) a subject which held much fascination for the emperor. In 1592, the Maharal moved to Posen , where he had been elected as Chief Rabbi of Poland . In Posen he composed ''Netivoth Olam'' and part of ''Derech Chaim'' (see below). Towards the end of his life he moved back to Prague, where he died in 1609 . He is buried there; his tomb is a famous tourist attraction. HIS NAME His second name (possible also his family's second name - depending on varying sources) of "Löw" or "Loew", derived from the German ''Löwe'', "". The Maharal's tomb in Prague is decorated with a heraldic shield with a lion with two intertwined tails, alluding both to his first name and to Bohemia , the arms of which has a two-tailed lion. INFLUENCE Disciples It is unknown how many Talmudic rabbinical scholars the Maharal taught in Moravia, but the main disciples from the Prague period include Rabbis Yom Tov Lipmann Heller and David Ganz. The former promoted his teacher's program of regular Mishnah study by the masses, and composed his ''Tosefoth Yom Tov'' (a Mishnah commentary incorporated into almost all published editions of the Mishnah over the past few hundred years) with this goal in mind. David Ganz died young, but produced the work ''Tzemach David'', a work of Jewish and general history, as well as writing on Astronomy ; both the MaHaRal and Ganz were in contact with Tycho Brahe , the famous astronomer. Jewish philosophy In the words of a modern writer, the Maharal "prevented the Balkanization of Jewish thought". His systematic and analytical approach to Jewish philosophy has made his works to Jewish philosophy what the Shulkhan Arukh is for Halakha . His works inspired the Polish branch of in the Language of the Revealed ". As a mark of his devotion to the ways of the Maharal, Rabbi Hutner bestowed the name of the Maharal's key work the ''Gur Aryeh'' upon a branch of the yeshiva he headed when he established its Kollel (a Yeshiva for post-graduate Talmud scholars) which then became a division of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in New York during the 1950s , known as Kollel Gur Aryeh . Both of these institutions, and the graduates they produce, continue to emphasize the serious teachings of the Maharal. Rabbi Hutner in turn also maintained that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) ( Germany , 19th Century ) must also have been influenced by the Maharal's ideas basing his seemingly Rationalistic Weltanschauung on the more Abstract and abstruse teachings of the hard-to-understand Jewish Kabbalah. Rabbi Judah Loew was not a champion of the open study of Kabbalah as such, and none of his works are in any way ''openly'' devoted to it. According to him, only the greatest of Torah scholars are able to discern his true original inspirations and the intellectual framework for his ideas in their complex entirety. Nevertheless, Kabbalistic ideas permeate his writings in a rational and philosophic tone. His main Kabbalistic influences appear to have been the Zohar and Sefer Yetzirah , as Lurianic Kabbalah had not by that time reached Europe. Although he could not reconcile himself to the investigations of Azariah Di Rossi , he diffused the tension between the Aggada (narrative, non-legal parts of the Talmud) and rationalism by his allegorical interpretations of difficult passages. He was entirely in favor of scientific research in so far as the latter did not contradict divine revelation, all the while insisting on finding deep meaning in all the contributions of Talmudic teachers. Literature See Also: Golem The legend of his creation of a Golem inspired Gustav Meyrink 's 1915 novel ''Der Golem''. Various other books have been inspired by this legend, the authenticity of which has been doubted; although the Golem motif is old, the connection between the Golem on the one hand and the Maharal and Prague on the other is known only from ca. 1840. Maharal is featured in '' He, She And It '') and the Dutch work ''De Procedure'' ("The Procedure", Harry Mulisch , 1999 ), both retelling the Golem legend. MISCELLANEOUS It is claimed in some circles of Orthodox Judaism that the Maharal's lineage is from the Davidic Line running all the way back to the original Judah. The Maharal's synagogue in Prague, the Altneushul , is still in use. BIBLIOGRAPHY
His works on the holidays bear titles that were inspired by the Biblical verse in I Chronicles 29:11: "Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth Yours ; Yours is the kingdom and are He Who is exalted over everything as the Leader." The book of "greatness" (''gedula'') on the Sabbath was not preserved, but the book of "power" (''gevurah'') is ''Gevurath Hashem'', the book of glory is ''Tif'ereth Yisrael'', and the book of "eternity" or "victory" (''netzach'') is ''Netzach Yisrael''. BOOKS
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