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- Judah Loew ben Bezalel, alt. Löw, Loewe, Löwe, or Levai, (between 1512 and 1526? – 17 September 1609)[1] widely known to scholars of Judaism as the Maharal of Prague, or simply The Maharal, the Hebrew acronym of "Moreinu Ha-Rav Loew" ("Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew"), was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia. Due to his unprecedented impact on Jewish study, he is considered one of the most important rabbis of all times.
Within the world of Torah and Talmudic scholarship, Loew is known for his works on Jewish philosophy and Jewish mysticism and his work Gur Aryeh al HaTorah, a supercommentary on Rashi's Torah commentary. He is also the subject of a 19th-century legend that he created the Golem of Prague, an animate mythological being fashioned from clay.
Rabbi Loew is buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague in Josefov, where his grave and intact tombstone can still be visited. His descendants' surnames include Braude, Loewy, Loeb, Lowy, Lowi, Low-Beer, Loew, Oppenheimer, Pfaelzer, Lowenstein and Keim. ...
The Maharal was probably born in Poznań, Poland,[2]—though Perels[3] lists the birth town mistakenly[2] as Worms in the Holy Roman Empire—to Rabbi Bezalel (Loew), whose family originated from the Rhenish town of Worms. His birth year is uncertain, with different sources listing 1512,[3] 1520[4] and 1526.[2][5] His uncle Jakob ben Chajim was Reichsrabbiner ("Rabbi of the Empire") of the Holy Roman Empire, his brother Chaim of Friedberg a famous rabbinical scholar. There is no documented evidence of his having received formal religious education, leading scholars to conclude that he was an extremely gifted autodidact.[6]
His family consisted of his wife, Pearl, six daughters, and a son, Bezalel, who became a Rabbi in Kolín, but died early in 1600. 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 Mikulov (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 68, 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 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, Hebrew: קַבָּלָה) a subject which held much fascination for the emperor.
In 1592, the Maharal moved to Poznań, where he had been elected as Chief Rabbi of Poland. In Poznań he composed Netivoth Olam and part of Derech Chaim. ...
The Maharal is the subject of the legend about the creation of a golem, a creature made out of clay to defend the Jews of the Prague Ghetto from antisemitic attacks, particularly the blood libel. He is said to have used mystical powers based on the esoteric knowledge of how God created Adam.[9] The general view of historians and critics is that the legend is a German literary invention of the early 19th century. The earliest known source for the story thus far is the 1834 book Der Jüdische Gil Blas by Friedrich Korn.[10][11] It has been repeated and adapted many times since.
(Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Loew_ben_Bezalel, set 5 May 2018).
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As a poor student, Judah became engaged to a wealthy woman Perla SHMELKES daughter of Samuel SHMELKES and intended to continue his studies with her family's support. When they became impoverished, however, the marriage was delayed, and his fiancée had to run a food shop. One day a knight passed by and snatched a loaf of bread from the shop on his spear. He explained that he had not eaten for three days and left his cloak with its lining containing gold coins as payment. The marriage could thus go ahead, and Judah spent the rest of his life On 23 February 1592, Emperor Rudolf II invited him to an audience to the Hradshin. According to legend, the Emperor wanted to be introduced to mysticism by the Maharal who could perform cabbalistic wonders.
On 16 February 1594, his colleague astronomer Tycho BRAHE arranged for him to speak with the Emperor Rudolph II, possibly on the subject of alchemy. The Maharal then was named Chief Rabbi of Posen. in relative affluence.
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- In the words of a modern writer, the Maharal "prevented the Balkanization of Jewish thought" (Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein 2000, citing Rabbi Nachman Bulman).
His works inspired the Polish branch of Hasidism, as well as a more recent wave of Torah scholars originating from Lithuania and Latvia, most markedly Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953) as well as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1864–1935). A more recent authority who had roots in both traditions was Rabbi Isaac Hutner (1906–1980). Rabbi Hutner succinctly defined the ethos of the Maharal's teachings as being Nistar BeLashon Nigleh, meaning (in Hebrew): "The Hidden in the language of the Revealed". That is, the Maharal couched kabbalistic ideas in non-kabbalistic language. 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 intellectual teachings of the Maharal. Rabbi Hutner in turn also maintained that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) (19th century Germany) 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. Instead, what they attempt to do is to make the ideas of the Kabbalah (which he held to be the most deeply true of all the Torah) accessible to the average educated reader, by presenting them in a rigorously philosophical form, couched in terms that are accessible to the public. According to R. Loew, only the greatest of Torah scholars are able to perceive the full intent of the Kabbalistic works in their complex entirety. Therefore, although kabbalistic doctrine permeates his writings, it is always presented in a rational and philosophic form. His main kabbalistic influences appear to have been the Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah, and traditions of the Chassidei Ashkenaz, as Lurianic Kabbalah had not by that time reached Europe.
Faced with the Aristotelian interpretation of Talmudic Aggadot by Azariah dei Rossi, he was indignant at what he termed the trivialization of the Sages' deep wisdom. In his work Be'er ha-Golah he vigorously disputes all of dei Rossi's theses, sternly upholding the subtly allegorical nature of Aggadah and demonstrating its independence from (and superiority to) the superficial observations of natural science. At the same time he was entirely in favor of scientific research, so long as the researcher did not use his observations as permission to contradict the final authority of divine revelation. His constant thesis is that the Talmudic, Midrashic, and Aggadic teachings refer always to matters far beyond the competence of natural science. (Wikipedia)
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Om slægterne Brændgaard & Heilesen
1526 - 1609 (97 år)
