Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm

For Rabbi Elijah Loans (born at Frankfurt-am-Main, 1555; died at Worms, 1636), see Elijah Loans.

Elijah Ba'al Shem or Eliyahu Ba'al Shem of Chełm (government of Lublin)[1] (born 1550;[2] died at Chelm,[2] 1583) was a Polish rabbi who served as chief rabbi of Chełm. He also studied Kabbalah,[3] and, according to his descendant Tzvi Ashkenazi, created a golem.[4] He is credited with creating the first golem with a "shem" (that is, using a combination of letters from one of the names of God to form a name; Elijah used "Sefer Yezirah"[4][5]), so he was known as a "Ba'al Shem."[6] He is the first rabbi in history to be known by this title.[1]

Life

He was born Eliyahu ben Aharon Yehudah ("Elijah son of Aaron Judah").[7] About 1565 he entered the yeshiva of Rabbi Solomon Luria of Lublin, and, after receiving his rabbinical ordination, became rabbi of Chełm, a position he would hold for the rest of his life.[3] In 1564, he gathered with other prominent rabbis, including his teacher, to co-sign the "piske dinim" (laws) which allowed an agunah to remarry.[3][7]

His great-granddaughter[8] was married to Rabbi Ephraim ha-Kohen (1616—1678), author of "Sha'ar Efrayim"[9][10] and grandfather of Rabbi Tzvi Ashkenazi.[8]

The Golem of Chełm

According to Jacob Emden, the son of the aforementioned Tzvi Ashkenazi, the Golem is said to have grown so that the rabbi feared that he might destroy the world.[11][12] Finally, the rabbi extracted the Shem from the forehead of his Golem, which returned to dust,[5][8][11][12] but the Golem scratched his master's face in the process.[8][12] An anonymous 1630 manuscript (the earliest known written legend of a contemporary figure creating a golem) recounts that the golem continued to grow that the rabbi had to destroy it by erasing the Hebrew letter aleph, first letter from the word emet (truth)[13] thereby rendering it met (dead).[14]

Although Emden only mentions a scratch on the rabbi's face, a different version of the legend states that while trying to remove the life-giving name of God in an attempt to destroy the raging beast, Rabbi Elijah was crushed to death under the weight of the Golem as it fell to pieces.[15][16]

Elijah's grandsons, Tzvi Ashkenazi and his son Jacob Emden, were both great Halakhists. They discussed the legal status of the golem: could the golem be counted in a minyan, the quorum of ten men required for prayer.[12][17] Human form and modicum of understanding were not enough to make something human.

The tale about Elijah's creation of the Golem was retold in the book Israel der Gotteskampfer der Baalschem von Chełm und sein Golem ("Israel God's fighter of Baalshem of Chełm and his Golem") written by Chayim Block and published in 1920.[18]

The attic of the Old Synagogue

According to the "Jewish Life and Work in Chełm" chapter of the Commemoration Book of Chełm (Poland) (Yisker-bukh Chełm),

"No one was allowed to enter the attic of the Old Synagogue. No one even knew where the key to the attic could be found. One person whispered to another the secret that in the attic there lies the golem of the famous Rabbi Elijah Ba'al Shem.
It was said that Elijah Ba'al Shem created from clay a golem who would stand on market days with an ax in his hand, and as soon as he saw that a peasant was going to beat up a Jew, the golem killed the peasant.
An entire week the golem served the Rabbi, the Rabbi's wife, and he performed the manual labor in the Beit Hamidrash [A Jewish house of study where the study of the Torah is undertaken].[19]
When the local landowner found out about the golem's might, the Ba'al Shem led the golem to the attic, withdrew from him the ineffable name of God, and converted the golem into a heap of clay. The Ba'al Shem locked the door, took with him the key, and since then the attic remained bolted."[20]

German-Jews of Jerusalem and the Crusades

According to Rabbi Elijah, German Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms, Germany to repay the favor.[21] Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the eleventh century.[22]

Funeral

According to popular legend, Elijah's greatness was witnessed in dramatic fashion soon after his death. It was said that during his time, the only road to the Jewish cemetery passed by a Russian church. Whenever a Jewish funeral procession passed by, Christians would throw rocks. Elijah knew of this and requested in his will that no one move or run away if the Christians did the same following his death.

Elijah's wishes were carried out after his death. When the procession neared the church, gentiles began their ritual of pelting the coffin and the Jews with rocks, when Elijah miraculously sat up and, after looking into the Torah scroll that was in the coffin [to be buried with him], the church sank together with the hooligans. The rabbi then laid back and became rigid as a corpse again. The Jews stared at each other in astonishment and the funeral procession continued. From this time forward, it was said that the hooligans no longer threw rocks during Jewish funerals.

Years later, pupils of the Kheder (Jewish elementary school) of a teacher named Leib Paks claimed that in the cellar, when jumping on the floor boards, the muffled ring of a bell sound could be heard. This led the children to believe that that was the very same spot where the church had sunk.[20]

Grave

Within the Chełm cemetery, there was a grave without a tombstone which was covered in bricks arranged in the shape of the Hebrew letter "Bet". This was believed to be the final burial place of Rabbi Elijah. Legend has it an angel would appear on the anniversary of his death and etch a letter on a certain brick. Because of this, everyone was afraid to touch the bricks.[20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "BA'AL SHEM". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Retrieved Feb 5, 2013.
  2. 1 2  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "ELIJAH BA'AL SHEM OF CHELM". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Retrieved Feb 5, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "ELIJAH BA'AL SHEM OF CHELM". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Retrieved Feb 6, 2013. Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Friedberg, Luḥot Zikkaron, p. 32, Drohobycz, 1897; Emden, Megillat Sefer, p. 4, Warsaw, 1896; Horodetzky, Kerem Shelomoh, p. 33, Drohobycz, 1896; Ha-Meassef, p. 157, St. Petersburg, 1902.
  4. 1 2 Tzvi Ashkenazi. חכם צבי, שאלה צג. HebrewBooks.org (in Hebrew). Retrieved Feb 6, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Trachtenberg, Joshua (2004) [1939]. Jewish Magic and Superstition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780812218626.
  6. ↑  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "GOLEM". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Retrieved Feb 6, 2013.
  7. 1 2 שו"ת ב"ח החדשות, סי' ע"ז. HebrewBooks.org (in Hebrew). Retrieved Feb 11, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Jacob Emden. מגלת ספר. HebrewBooks.org (in Hebrew). Retrieved Feb 6, 2013.
  9. ↑  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "EPHRAIM BEN JACOB HA-KOHEN". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Retrieved Mar 21, 2013.
  10. ↑ "שער אפרים". HebrewBooks.org. Retrieved Mar 21, 2013.
  11. 1 2  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Golem of Hohe Rabbi Löw". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. citing Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," i., No. 163.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Jacob Emden. שאילת יעבץ, חלק שני, שאלה פב. HebrewBooks.org (in Hebrew). Retrieved Feb 11, 2013.
  13. ↑ Sefer Yetzirah Timeline
  14. ↑ see English Wikipedia article Taw#In Judaism
  15. ↑ Kieval, Hillel J. Languages of Community: The Jewish Experience in the Czech. Lands. University of California Press; 1 edition, 2000 (ISBN 0-5202-1410-2)
  16. ↑ Cathy S. Gelbin (2011). "Introduction to The Golem Returns" (PDF). University of Michigan Press. Retrieved Mar 14, 2013.
  17. ↑  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Golem of Hohe Rabbi Löw". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. citing the "ḥakam Ẓebi," Responsa, No. 93, Amsterdam, 1712; Baer Heṭeb to Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 55.
  18. ↑ Bloch, Chayim. Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague. Kessinger Publishing; Reprint edition, 1997 (ISBN 0766101118)
  19. ↑  Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "BET HA-MIDRASH". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
  20. 1 2 3 Winik, Akiva. "Jewish Life and Work in Chełm".
  21. ↑ Heilprin, Jehiel (1768). Seder ha-Dorot. HebrewBooks.org (in Hebrew) (Warsaw 1878 ed.). p. 252. Retrieved Mar 6, 2013.
  22. ↑ Epstein, in "Monatsschrift", xlvii. 344; Jerusalem: Under the Arabs
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