Scholarship
In addition to his work on behalf of the Breslov community in Safed, Koenig was renowned for his encyclopedic knowledge of Breslov teachings and Kabbalah. He wrote Chayei Nefesh, a book explaining the meaning of binding oneself to the tzaddik (in response to the Nefesh HaChaim by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin), which was published during his lifetime, and left many unpublished manuscripts filled with chiddushim (new Torah thoughts) on Likutey Moharan, Rebbe Nachman's major work. His collected letters, entitled Shaarey Tzaddik ("Gates to the Righteous"), which are a treasure trove of Breslov teachings, were published prior to Rosh Hashanah in 2012 (5773) in two volumes.
Koenig's one-room home in Meah Shearim was always open to those seeking advice and counsel. He was known for his ability to connect with any Jew, no matter his age or background.
Koenig died in Manchester, England on 7 July 1980 (23 Tammuz 5740), while fund-raising on behalf of the Breslov community in Safed. (His also is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero of Safed, with whom he felt a lifelong affinity.) His widow, Esther Yehudit, died on Shavuot day, 9 June 2008.
Read more about this topic: Gedaliah Aharon Koenig
Famous quotes containing the word scholarship:
“Product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues, compact of obscure and minute association, a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws, in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of a pseudo- scholarship which actually destroys its object.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)