Maharal: Emerging Patterns; Ten Representative Essays Culled From The Works of Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague

167, [1] pages. Footnotes. Decorative cover has slight wear and soiling. No dust jacket present. Inscribed by the Editor on the fep. The inscription reads 3-28-01 To Craig, In admiration of the wonderful newspaper you have brought to Dallas! Best regards, Yaakov Rosenblatt. Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt, a member of the rabbinical faculty of DATA, the Dallas Area Torah Association, received his ordination from Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, NJ in January 2000. The author of All I Need Know, I learned in Yshiva (Targum Press, 1995) and a frequent contributor to Jewish publications, he and his family moved from the Northeast to the Southwest. These fascinating, in-depth essays offer the reader a glimpse into the thought of the Maharal, whose vast work is the foundation of much of Jewish thought today, and the intellectual base of both Chassidus and Mussar. Culled mainly from Gevuros Hashem and Tiferes Yisrael, subjects include: Avraham; Bris Bein HaBesarim; Yosef; The Ten Plagues; The Exodus; Sinai; The Ten Commandments; Torah and MItzvos; The Haggadah; and Hallel. Judah Loew ben Bezalel (between 1512 and 1526 - 17 September 1609), also known as Rabbi Loew, the Maharal of Prague, or simply the Maharal (the Hebrew acronym of "Moreinu ha-Rav Loew", 'Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew'), was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia. Loew wrote on Jewish philosophy and Jewish mysticism. His work Gur Aryeh al HaTorah is a supercommentary on Rashi's Torah commentary. He is also the subject of a later legend that he created the Golem of Prague, an animate being fashioned from clay. Loew's tomb in Prague is decorated with a heraldic shield with a lion with two intertwined tails (queue fourchee), alluding both to his first name and to Bohemia, the arms of which has a two-tailed lion. Loew accepted a rabbinical position in 1553 as Landesrabbiner of Moravia at Mikulov (Nikolsburg), directing community affairs but also determining which tractate of the Talmud was to be studied in the communities in that province. He also revised the community statutes on the election and taxation process. Although he retired from Moravia in 1573 the communities still considered him an authority long after that. One of his activities in Moravia was the rallying against slanderous slurs on legitimacy (Nadler) that were spread in the community against certain families and could ruin the finding of a marriage partner for the children of those families. This phenomenon even affected his own family. He used one of the two yearly grand sermons (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 1583) to denounce the phenomenon. Loew moved to Prague in 1573, where he again accepted a rabbinical position, replacing the retired Isaac Hayoth. He immediately reiterated his views on Nadler. On 23 February 1592, he had an audience with Emperor Rudolf II, which he attended together with his brother Sinai and his son-in-law Isaac Cohen; Prince Bertier was present with the emperor. The conversation seems to have been related to Kabbalah, subject which held much fascination for the emperor. In 1592, Loew moved to Pozna , where he had been elected as Chief Rabbi of Poland. In Pozna he composed Netivoth Olam and part of Derech Chaim. Loew's numerous philosophical works have become cornerstones of Jewish thought;[16] and he was the author of "one of the most creative and original systems of thought developed by East European Jewry." He employed rationalist terminology and classical philosophical ideas in his writings, and supported scientific research on condition that it did not contradict divine revelation. He began publishing his books at a very late age. In 1578, at the age of 66, he published his first book, Gur Aryeh ("Young Lion", Prague 1578) - an supercommentary in five volumes for Rashi's commentary on the Torah, which goes well beyond that. …