Elijah ben Solomon, Gaon of Vilna
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (Eliyahu ben Shelomoh Zalman) was born, probably in Vilna, into a rabbinical family. He mastered Jewish scholarly texts at a young age, lived in Poland and Germany for a time, and returned to Vilna in 1748. Despite the fact that he held no formal position in Jewish communal affairs, his followers recognized him as ha-ga’on he-ḥasid, a genius, a sage, and an authority on Jewish legal matters; he was additionally called upon to offer opinions on scientific and educational issues. The Ga'on was a foe of the early Enlightenment, but he opposed Hasidism even more, wanting to excommunicate its adherents.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Epistle against the Hasidim
Primary Source
Ethical Will
Primary Source
Bi’ur ha-Gra: Glosses to Shulḥan arukh
Related Guide
Rabbinic Scholarship, 1750–1880
Despite the challenges to the status of rabbinic scholarship beginning in the early modern period, it flourished with figures of coruscating brilliance in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.