Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam)

Elijah Loanz

1734

Image

Facing-page Hebrew manuscript with charts with Hebrew letters on left side, and geometric drawings on right side. — This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s *Toledot Adam* (*The Generations of Adam*) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.

Credits

Courtesy GFC Trust / William L. Gross.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

For the Voice

For the voice: I entreat you Paskon, Atmon, Sagron: Paskon, that my voice not stop: Atmon, that my throat not be sealed; Sagron, that my throat not be closed. May it be your will, God and Lord of our…

View Source

Exterior wall of synagogue featuring Star of David on the right side of the wall and a ribbon-like sculpture in the middle of the wall on a prominent vertical section that juts out from the rest of the wall, with inscription in English reading "And the bush was not consumed."

B’nai Israel (Millburn, New Jersey)

Percival Goodman won the commission to design the building for Congregation B’nai Israel after speaking at a two-day symposium organized in 1947 by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to…

View Source

Ancestral Tales and Legends

Under the roof of the oldest synagogue in Prague (the Altneuschul), because of the belief that misfortune would meet the workers, there is preserved, in its primeval form and color, a piece of trunk…

View Source

Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Elijah Loanz

1564–1636

The family of the rabbi and kabbalist Elijah ben Moses Loanz traced its ancestry back to Rashi. Loanz was born in Frankfurt am Main, studied under many prominent rabbis, and himself served as rabbi in Hanua, Fulda, Friedberg, and Worms. In Worms, he was also a ḥazzan (sexton), preacher, and head of the yeshiva. Loanz became a famed kabbalist: his amulets were very popular, and various miracles were attributed to him. He also engaged in disputes with Christian priests and corresponded with the Christian Hebraist Johannes Buxtorf. Loanz composed many works, most of which were not printed in his lifetime and have survived in manuscript form. These include commentaries and supercommentaries on biblical books, commentaries on the Zohar and other kabbalistic works, as well as some secular and liturgical poetry (among them a poetic dispute between wine and water). Examples of his amulets have been preserved in collections reproducing these formulas. Loanz also helped to prepare Moses Isserles’s work Darkhe Moshe (The Ways of Moses) for publication.