Elijahu Guttmacher

Rabbi Elijahu Guttmacher

Elijahu ben Salomon Guttmacher (also: Elia (s) Gutmacher and other name variants; born on August 15, 1796 in Borek , Posen ; died on October 5, 1874 in Grätz , Province of Posen ) was a "der Grätzer Raw" in his time admired and esteemed rabbi and tzaddik and became a forerunner of the Chibbat Zion movement.

Life

Elias Guttmacher was the son of Rabbi Salomon Guttmacher. After visiting the cheder , he attended various Talmud schools, first the yeshiva in Borek, then in Rawicz , then with Jakob Lorbeerbaum in Polish Lissa . In 1815 he was one of the first students at the famous Akiba Egers yeshiva in Poznan . Shortly thereafter, he married and continued his studies. He developed ascetic and hasidic tendencies. After seven years, he was by Akiva Eger ordained .

In 1822 Guttmacher became rabbi in Pleschen on Eger's recommendation and led a yeshiva there with 400 students. In 1841 he became rabbi in Grätz, also with a large yeshiva.

Guttmacher joined Hirsch Kalischer when he began to propagate the revival of the Jewish colonization of Palestine. As a result, Guttmacher became one of Kalischer's most loyal employees. In 1866, together with Kalischer, he wrote an appeal for a Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine.

Elijahu Guttmacher carried out intensive kabbalistic studies and confirmed Kalischer's thesis that the messianic time was preceded by the self-liberation of the Jews. In his old age he worked as a miracle worker and amulet writer and thus caused a wave of pilgrims to Grätz.

In 1868 Guttmacher was one of the signatories of the Rabbi Appeal in Thorn , which called on Jews to support the colonization of Palestine.

The religious kibbutz Sde Elijahu in the Emeq ha-Ma'ajanot region in northern Israel is named after Elijahu Guttmacher.

Quote

“It is a mistake to believe that everyone will live their lives in the usual way, and suddenly the gates of grace will open, miracles will occur in heaven and earth, all prophecies will be fulfilled, and all will be called from their homes . I say this is not so, and I add: Settlement in the Holy Land, make a start, acquire the sleeping land from the Arabs, keep the commandments there that can be kept in our time, make the land fertile, in Buy Eretz Israel land to settle the poorest of our people there - this is an indispensable cornerstone for full salvation. "

Work editions

• Sor Sippōrāh [according to Ex 4,25]: Hīddūšē Rabenū 'Eliyyāhū Gūtmacher. Edited by Nissan Juda Löb Schuv, two volumes, Jerusalem 1979; Vol. I on Berāchōth and Sedär Mō'ed. Volume II on Yevāmōth, Ketūbbōth, Gittīn and Qiddūšīn.
• 'Adäräth ´Eliyyāhū. Responses , explanations and interpretations of the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch , ed. by Josef Samuel Kriger, two volumes, Jerusalem 1984.
• Sefārīm Niftahīm. Volume I: Sukkath Šālōm. Jerusalem 1990; Volume II: Michtāv 'Eliyyāhū. Essays and letters on religious law and theological questions, in particular on the defense of orthodoxy and the Palestine settlement, Jerusalem 1990; both volumes reprinted Jerusalem 1996.

literature

• The Orient: Reports, Studies, and Reviews for Jewish History and Literature. Edited by Julius Fürst , Leipzig 1842, p. 90.
• General newspaper of Judaism. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson , XVIII. Year, No. 5, Leipzig 1854, p. 56 f. ( Digital version with compact memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. XIX. Year, No. 29, Leipzig 1855, p. 375 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• List of the synagogue communities formed in the Prussian state on the basis of the law of July 23, 1847, sorted according to provinces, government districts and districts, with details of their number of souls and families, the synagogues, institutes, associations, etc. Names of their rabbis, cantors, board members, representatives and other personal details. Compiled from official sources. In: Ph. Wertheim (Ed.): Calendar and yearbook on the year 5618 for the Jewish communities of Prussia. Berlin 1858, Appendix, p. 43.
• General newspaper of Judaism. XXIV. Year, No. 35, Leipzig 1860, p. 519 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. XXVII. Year, No. 43, Leipzig 1863, p. 664 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• Israel Shimon Shin: 'Aliyyath' Eliyyāhū. Commemorative address, Jerusalem 1875.
• Louis Lewin: History of the Jews in Lissa. Pniewy (tiller) 1904, p. 208.
• Aron Heppner and Isaak Herzberg : From the past and present of the Jews and the Jewish communities in the Posner lands. Two volumes, Koschmin and Bromberg 1909-1924, pp. 317, 422, 700.
• The Jew. A monthly . Ed. by Martin Buber , R. Löwit Verlag, Berlin / Vienna, No. 5 f., 1917.
• Ezriel Günzig: The miracle men in the Jewish people. Their lives and doings are shown. Antwerp 1921.
• Samuel Löb Zitron : Lexicon Zioni. Chamesch Meoth Biographer. Warsaw 1924.
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Vol. II, Orient Printing House, Chernivtsi 1927.
• Nathan Michael Gelber : Gutmacher, Elia. In: Georg Herlitz (Hrsg.): Jüdisches Lexikon. Vol. II, Jewish publishing house, Berlin 1927.
• Gerschom Scholem : The last Kabbalists in Germany. In the other: Judaica 3. Studies on Jewish mysticism. Frankfurt am Main 1970, 2nd edition 1977, p. 228 f.
• Jehuda Reinharz : Documents on the History of German Zionism 1882-1933. Tuebingen 1981.
• Jacob H. Sinason: The Gaon of Posen. A portrait of Rabbi Akiva Guens-Eger. Jerusalem and New York 1989, p. 41 ff.
• Meir Hildesheimer: Chosen people and citizens. Jews and non-Jews in the teaching of Rabbi Elias [sic] Gutmacher. In: Journal of Religious and Spiritual History 61.1.
• Entry GUTTMACHER, Elias. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (editors), edited by Carsten Wilke : Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781-1871. K G Saur, Munich 2004, p. 401 ff.

Web links

• Website of the Kibbutz Sde Elijahu