Life
Born Eliyahu ben Aharon Yehudah ("Elijah son of Judah Aaron"), he studied under Rabbi Solomon Luria of Lublin to attain his rabbinical ordination and became Chełm's chief rabbi, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. In 1564, he gathered with other prominent Rabbis, including his teacher, to co-author the "piske denim" (laws) which allowed an Agunah to remarry. He was an avid practitioner of Kabbalah and was said to have created a Golem using the names of God from the Sefer Yezirah. Because of his mastery over the esoteric uses of the names of God, he became the first person to be given the religious title of Baal Shem.
His death is closely associated with the Golem myth. One version of it 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. Other sources suggest his face was only scratched and that he seemingly died of natural causes years later.
He wrote two books during his life; the Sefer Mif’alot Elohim and the Sefer Toldot Adam.
Two of Elijah's grandsons were great Halakhists: Tzvi Ashkenazi and his son Jacob Emden. They discussed the legal status of the golem: could the golem be counted in a minyan, the quorum of ten men required for prayer. Human form and modicum of understanding were not enough to make something human. Also, according to Emden, the destructive potential of the golem could destroy the world.
Read more about this topic: Elijah Ba'al Shem Of Chelm
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I feel the desire to be with you all the time. Oh, an occasional absence of a week or two is a good thing to give one the happiness of meeting again, but this living apart is in all ways bad. We have had our share of separate life during the four years of war. There is nothing in the small ambition of Congressional life, or in the gratified vanity which it sometimes affords, to compensate for separation from you. We must manage to live together hereafter. I can’t stand this, and will not.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“... the opportunity offered by life to women is far in excess of any offered to men. To be the inspiration is more than to be the tool. To create the world, a greater thing than to reform it.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“Unfortunately, life may sometimes seem unfair to middle children, some of whom feel like an afterthought to a brilliant older sibling and unable to captivate the family’s attention like the darling baby. Yet the middle position offers great training for the real world of lowered expectations, negotiation, and compromise. Middle children who often must break the mold set by an older sibling may thereby learn to challenge family values and seek their own identity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)