Elijah Loans

This article is about Eliyahu Baal Shem that born in 1555. For other people named Elijah Baal Shem, see Eliyahu Baal Shem.

Elijah ben Moses Ashkenazi Loans
Title	Elijah Baal Shem of Worms
Personal life
Born	1555 Frankfurt-am-Main
Died	1636 Worms, Germany
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Buried	Jewish Cemetery, Worms

Elijah ben Moses Ashkenazi Loans also known as Elijah Baal Shem of Worms (1555 – July 1636) was a German rabbi and Kabbalist.

Life

He was born in Frankfurt-am-Main. He belonged to the family of Rashi, on his mother's side was the grandson of Johanan Luria and a grandson of Josel of Rosheim.

After studying in his native city under the direction of Jacob Ginzburg and Akiba Frankfort, Loans went to Kraków, where he attended the lectures of Rabbi Menahem Mendel Avigdors. He also studied in the Yeshivah of the Maharal. While there he prepared for publication the "Darkhei Moshe" of Moses Isserles. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Loans was called to the rabbinate of Fulda, which he left in 1612, occupying successively the rabbinates of Hanau, Friedberg (1620), and Worms (1630), in which last-named city he remained until his death. One of his students was Juspa Schammes the chronicler of the Jewish community of Worms and the synagogue caretaker (shammes).

Works

Loans was a diligent student of Kabbalah, and for this reason was surnamed "Ba'al Shem". He was also accomplished in music and calligraphy, and various legends circulated regarding his personality. He was the author of the following works: Rinnat Dodim (Basel, 1600), a commentary on Song of Songs; Mikhlal Yofi (Amsterdam, 1695), a commentary on Ecclesiastes; Wikkuaḥ Yayin 'im ha-Mayim (Amsterdam, 1757), a poem with a commentary; Ma'agle Ẓedeḳ (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1832), a commentary on Baḥya's "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot"; Ẓofnat Pa'aneaḥ (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1830), a commentary on the "Tiḳḳune Zohar"; a commentary on Genesis Rabbah (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 149); and Adderet Eliyahu (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1829), a commentary on the Zohar.

Loans also edited the "'Ammude Shelomoh" of Solomon Luria on the "Semag" (Basel, 1599), and the "Sha'are Dura" of Isaac ben Meïr of Dueren, to which he wrote a preface (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1600).

Another Eliyahu baal shem

Main article: Eliyahu Baal Shem Ben Yosef Yutzpa

There was a third Eliyahu baal shem who gets confused with this Eliyahu Baal Shem, who lived in Worms, Krakow, Chelm and Prague. Not to be confused with Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm. He was born to Rabbi Yosef Yutzpa, an exiled Spanish Jew who moved to Kracow. He was a hidden tzaddik and never got married until the age of 80. He had a son 2 years later which he named after the prophet Eliyahu, after he was told by the latter that his son would be a successor of righteous individuals who would guide the Jewish world until the coming of the mashiach. He died at the age of 95 just before his son was 13. He taught his son torah himself.

Rabbi Eliyahu ben Yutzpa Baal Shem held a Yeshivah in Worms from 1590 for 30 years, which later moved to Chelm, then Prague. He was forced to leave Worms on the account of Rabbi Pinchas Zelig of Speyer, who was vehemently anti the publication of the Zohar in 1558 and its dissemination. He then moved to Chelm in Poland, then Prague in Bohemia. Unlike loanz who is buried in Worms. Further proof that he is not loanz, is that he attended the funeral of the grandchild of the Maharal in Prague at the age of 108/118. He therefore could not possibly be in Worms. His primary students were Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem and Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller. He didn't leave any manuscripts, though he spread the works of Kabbalah by Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabbai from Spain, to Bohemia, Germany, Italy and Poland. He spread them after they came to print, from Jews exiled from Spain to Europe. He also studied and incorporated the works of the Ramak and the Arizal as they were brought over from Safed to Europe. Eliyahu ben Yosef Yutzpa baal shem was born in 1536/7 and passed away at 118 in the year 1654.

External links

• Information about his tombstone: text, images, dimensions, and bibliographic references (in German and Hebrew).