Thread by @PorazDan

Who loves #JewishHistory?

2020 marks 300 years to the birth of one of the most important, most influential Jewish scholars of all times. How did he become so important?

Here’s a thread about Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Shlomo Zalman, commonly known as the #VilnaGaon >>

Rabbi Eliyahu was born on April 23rd 1720, in a small village called Sialiec, today in #Belarus but back then it was under the sovereignty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth >>

From a very young age, little Eliyahu was remarkable. He was known for being a gifted ‘Talmid Chacham’ - an outstanding brilliant Torah scholar >>

What he was most famous for was his absolute devotion to the studying of the Torah. In the Book of Joshua, chapter 1 verse 8 it says: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night”.
And he didn’t; and he did >>

It is told that he would sleep only 2 hours every night, the absolute minimum required to carry on, so he could devote as much time as possible to study Torah >>

Those years were difficult times for Jews of Eastern Europe. A few decades earlier the Cossacks, an eastern Slavic ethnic group, uprised against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. This uprising effected many vulnerable Jewish Communities and thousands were killed. More here 👇🏻>>

The Cossack Riots -

The national Jewish trauma of the Messiah Claimant Shabbtai Zvi, who managed to attract, convince and delude the masses, was still open. More here 👇🏻
>>

The antisemitic pogroms and the despair in Jewish communities throughout Eastern Europe, contributed to the emergence of a new movement that swiftly spread out - Hasidic Judaism >>

The new Hasidic movement put emphasis on the spiritual dimension of Judaism and on the need to be one with god.
Back to the #VilnaGaon - he was the most profound dissident of this new idea >>

In fact, the #VilnaGaon opposed Hasidism so harshly that in some cases he referred to the Hasidim as infidels that deserve ostracism and beating. Unlike Hasidism, he preached that the most important part of being a Jew is to study Torah >>

Overtime, East European Jews were devided into Hasidic Jews, and those who opposed them - the followers of the #VilnaGaon. Today, the ‘Hasidim’ and the ‘Misnagdim’ (the opponents), are the two prominent movements of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism >>

The #VilnaGaon made an attempt to immigrate to ׳Eretz Yisrael׳ - the land of #Israel (aka the promised land aka the holy land aka Palestina) then, the district of Southern Syria and part of the Ottoman Empire >>

This attempt, that he made accompanied by some of his students, (dated to the late 1770’s or the early 1780’s) failed, and eventually the #VilanGaon never reached Israel >>

Even though he faild to reach the promised land, many of his students did not lose hope and immigrated some years later. Tweeted about it when I reached 1808 followers. Here 👇🏻
>>

The #VilnaGaon’s (failed) attempt to return to the promised land didn’t come out of the blue. I tweeted about the Hasidic immigration wave to Israel when I reached 1777 followers 👇🏻
>>

One of the #VilnaGaon’s most prominent students was Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin (town in modern day Belarus). In 1803, he established the Volozhin Yeshiva that operated for almost a century and became the prototype for Lithuanian style Yeshivas around the world >>

The #VilnaGaon died on October 9 1797 at the age of 77 in the city of Vilniaus- then part of the Russian Empire and today the capital of Lithuania.
His legacy of devotion, and tireless perseverance in studying the Torah, lives on.