Judah Loew

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Grave of Rabbi Löw in the Jewish cemetery in Prague

Judah Löw or Jehuda ben Bezal'el Löw , also known as Rabbi Löw or MHR "L ( Maharal ; abbreviation for Moreinu ha-Rav Loew - our teacher Rabbi Loew ) from Prague (born between 1512 and 1525; died on September 17, 1609 in Prague), was a well-known rabbi , Talmudist , darzhan ( Hebrew "preacher") and philosopher of the 16th century , who is believed to have created the golem .

Biographical data

According to legend, Rabbi Löw is said to have destroyed the golem in the attic of Prague's Old New Synagogue
Monument of Rabbi Löw by Ladislav Šaloun at the New Town Hall in Prague

Neither date nor place of birth of Judah Löw are known exactly. Traditionally, he was born in 1512 - presumably in Poznan - but some researchers assume later dates (until 1525). He came from a rabbinical family famous for their erudition, which probably originally came from Worms . Judah was born as the second eldest son of Bezal'el ben Chajjim, a brother of the rabbi Jacob Löw .

The Jewish historian and astronomer David Gans (1541–1613) reports in the chronicle “Zemach David” for the year (5) 352 (= 1592) that Emperor Rudolf II sent to Rabbi Judah Löw and the Emperor “… spoke to him about Face to face, like a friend. And the ways of her words were mysterious, closed and hidden. And this happened here in the holy community in Prague, on the first day (of the week; Sunday), the 3rd Adar (5) 352. "

Rabbi Judah Löw became a symbol for the mystical Prague, according to the legend that originated in the 19th century as the creator of the golem, the clay figure brought to life. There are also many stories and legends surrounding his mysterious meeting with Emperor Rudolf II. Today he is widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers and rabbis in Judaism. The descendants of Judah Löw were the Hungarian rabbi Leopold Löw and his son Immanuel Löw .

Life path

Since Rabbi Löw never spoke about his youth and his teacher, his early years are in the dark. Only the years 1553–1573 are documented, in which he was rabbi in the Moravian Nikolsburg (Mikulov) and later also chief rabbi . There he had the reputation of an organizer in administrative matters and also as a legal expert . He did not live in Prague until he was 60 years old. As a private person he ran the Talmud school "Klaus" , which his friend Mordechai Maisel built and financed. Although he had long had a reputation as a scribe , he was passed over twice in the election for the successor to the chief rabbi. He left Prague in 1589 to go back to Poland . He did not return to Prague until 1597, where he was elected chief rabbi at the age of almost eighty. He held this office until his death on September 17, 1609. With the participation of the community, he was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery. His grave is still a popular attraction in this cemetery today.

Thinker and reformer

Rabbi Löw was a conservative critic of current affairs. For example, he condemned the common practice of rabbis of accepting gifts for performing ritual duties. With the demand for a return to the Torah and the Aggada , he turned against the predominant technique of the " Pilpul " in his time , which encouraged a learning that was more in comments and interpretations and thus in his eyes the originality and closeness to the Talmudic writings lost. In doing so, he mainly focused on conveying the subject matter. Here, in turn, there are very modern ideas on didactics, which the Bohemian pedagogue Comenius later took up. Contrary to the traditional forms of pilpul, the Jewish form of scholasticism , learning should be geared towards the individual abilities of the individual. Rabbi Löw relied on a statement from the 5th chapter of the sayings of the fathers , according to which the age of the students must be reconciled with the subject taught. There are different views on his relationship to Kabbalah . Gershom Scholem is of the opinion that he made Kabbalistic ideas widely known and thus became a forerunner of Eastern European Hasidism .

To an extent that only Yehuda ha-Levi did before him , Judah Löw dealt with the “uniqueness” of the people of Israel , their mission and their fate. God chose Israel of his own free will and not because of the merit of his patriarchs . Therefore, the choice of Israel could not depend on whether Israel was doing the will of the Almighty or not. As a result, the Christian claim that Jewish exile is evidence that God has forsaken his people becomes null and void. He describes the choice of Israel as bechira kelalit ("general choice") and the connection with God, which is the essence of this choice, as devekut kelalit ("general devotion"). Israel forms the form, while other peoples form the matter . This is where the differences in ethical behavior and understanding of divine affairs are based. In Israel psychic powers would predominate, among the other peoples physical powers.

He describes exile as a "deviation" from the natural world order, which is expressed in three ways:

  1. Uprooting - every people has a natural place, and the separation from this natural abode has a destructive influence on the natural order
  2. Loss of political independence and submission to foreign powers - "because the submission of a people to another is not compatible with the appropriate order of reality, because every people has the right to be free"
  3. Dispersion - each people is a unit, and if a territorial center is missing, it is no longer “a complete compact people”.

However, any deviation from the natural order is only temporary. This gives rise to conviction and belief in messianic redemption , which will abolish the abnormal state of exile. But despite his messianic belief, he opposed the messianic speculations of his time with all his might and fought against “forcing the end (of exile)”. The counsel of God cannot be changed by force. One must pray for salvation, but not “too much”, not even in a time of religious persecution. Even calculating the time of redemption is forbidden, it will come in due time. Shortly before redemption, “Israel's humiliation will be greater than ever”, and it is from this “absence” that redemption will come. He explains the Aggada ( legend ) according to which the Messiah was born on the day of the destruction of the Temple: "This birth is not an actual physical birth ... but means that the Messiah is born from the point of view of the messianic potential that exists in the world."

He mentions the cosmopolitan basis of exile. Although it would actually be appropriate that Israel, as the essence of the world, would reside in Erez Israel , the essence of the geographic world, when the exile began, the whole world became Israel's residence. According to the statement from the Midrash : “Wherever Israel went into exile, it was accompanied by the divine presence ( Shechina ),” Rabbi Loew emphasizes that the Shechina must accompany Israel more strongly in the Galut than in the land of Israel. As a result, worship, the exercise of charity, and the study of the Torah are essential to the survival of the Jewish people in exile. Peter Demetz describes Rabbi Löw's thinking as a “drama of the conflict between new Renaissance ideas and Jewish tradition”.

Golem

In Prague's Josefstadt , the former Jewish quarter, Rabbi Löw is said to have formed the legendary Golem (“the unfinished”) out of clay, brought it to life through the magic of the magical syllable “Shem” and made it his servant. According to another legend, the golem was said to have been made from clay 400 years earlier. The golem legend was made into a film in 1920 as The Golem as He Came into the World .

literature

Web links

Commons : Judah Löw  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ (Ex. 33.11)
  3. ↑ (the 9th Aw )
personal data
SURNAME Low, Judah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rabbi Loew; Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel; Maharal; MaHaRaL; MHR "L
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rabbi and talmudist; is considered the creator of the golem
DATE OF BIRTH between 1512 and 1525
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1609
Place of death Prague