Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("31323")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Talmud">Talmud
The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
ist and a leading religious authority in the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish community of
KalischKalisz is a city in central Poland with 107,910 inhabitants , the capital city of Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the seventeenth century. His full name is Avraham Avli ben Chaim HaLevi from the town of Gombin. There are texts that list his family name as Kalisch after the city of his residence. After his parents were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648, he moved to live and study with his relative in
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
, Jacob Isaac, Gombiner.
He is known to scholars of
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
for his
Magen Avraham commentary on the
Orach ChayimOrach Chayim is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of Halakha , Arba'ah Turim. This section treats all aspects of Jewish law primarily pertinent to the Hebrew calendar...
section of Rabbi Joseph Karo's
Shulchan AruchThe Shulchan Aruch is a codification, or written manual, of halacha , composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 16th century...
, which he began writing in 1665 and finished in 1671. His brother Yehudah traveled in 1673 to
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
to print the work but died on the journey. It was not published until 1692 after Rabbi Gombiner’s death. His son wrote in the preface to the work that his father was frequently sick and suffered pain and discomfort.
Debate over name of the book
The book was originally called
Magen Avraham, but there was opposition to that title because it was one of the
names of GodIn Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title. It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relation of God to the Jewish people...
. It was then called
Ner Yisroel ("Lamp of Israel") (נר יפה של רבי אברהם הלוי). However, his son wanted to perpetuate his father's name in the title by linking it to the commentary of the
TazDavid HaLevi Segal , also known as the Taz or the Turei Zahav, was a prominent Polish halakhic authority and author of a significant commentary on the Shulchan Aruch.-Biography:...
-
Magen David, so he published his father's work under the title
Magen Avraham.
Halakhah, minhag, custom
Rabbi Gombiner's innovative approach to commenting on the
Shulchan AruchThe Shulchan Aruch is a codification, or written manual, of halacha , composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 16th century...
was to incorporate the customs of his contemporary Poland. The work is terse and difficult and needed explanation by later commentators. His lasting effect on
halakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
h was the incorporation of the
KabbalisticKabbalah is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation...
customs of
SafedSafed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. At an elevation of 800 meters above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee. Since the sixteenth century, Safad has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias...
, especially those found in Rabbi
Isaiah HorowitzIsaiah Horowitz , was a well-known rabbi and mystic. He is also known as Shelah HaKadosh - "the Holy Shelah" - from the title of his best-known work.-Biography:The Shelah Hakadosh was born in Prague and died in Tzfat , Israel...
's
Shnei Luhot Haberit.
He taught that customs should be respected. In the case of the blessing of "giving strength to the weary" he writes that one does not undo an old custom, and believed that opponents like Rabbi Yosef Karo likely repented of changing
minhagMinhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers...
at the end of his life. (46:6)
Dealing with the widespread practice of hiring gentiles to work for the community on the
SabbathShabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night...
, he wrote, "they allow themselves to hire a Gentile under contract to remove the garbage from the streets, and the Gentile does the work on the Sabbath." He assumed that a prior rabbi had approved the action "and we must conclude that a great rabbi handed down this ruling" for the sake of the community. (
Magen Avraham 244:8.)
Whereas 16th-century rabbis noted the custom to celebrate the
bar mitzvah with a party, Rabbi Gombiner codified it that a
bar mitzvah should be as elaborate as a wedding. (
Magen Abraham,
Orah Hayyim, 225, 4).
Gombiner refers to the "drinking of tabak through a pipe by drawing the smoke into the mouth and discharging it," teaching that smokers should first make a blessing over smoking as a type of refreshment. No blessing is required if there is no "substance" in the benefit derived (
Magen Avraham 210, 9). See
Jewish law and history on smokingThis article addresses the history of, and Halakha that applies to, tobacco and cigarette smoking by Jews from the early modern period to the present day...
.
Rabbi Gombiner taught that
aliyot should be given based on events in congregants' lives, such as marriage, birth and death, rather than always giving it to the scholars.
He also taught that "women are exempt from counting the
Omer, since it is a positive time-bound commandment". Nonetheless, they have already made it obligatory upon themselves." (489,1)
He also held that women can count for a
minyan for the reading of the
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
(55, 690) This controversial point is discussed in recent
responsaResponsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Catholic Church:...
(see Rabbi Yehuda Henkin (Bnei Banim II, Chap. 10) and Rabbi
Mendel ShapiroMendel Shapiro, a Jerusalem lawyer and Modern Orthodox Rabbi, is the author of a halakhic analysis in which he argued that women could be called to read from the Torah in prayer services with men on Shabbat under certain conditions. He and his viewpoint became the subject of extensive dispute...
). . His opinion is one of the sources cited by Rabbi Shapiro and by other proponents of the halakhic legitimacy of the contemporary
Partnership MinyanPartnership minyan is a term used by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance to describe a prayer group that, according to its adherents, conforms to the strictures of Orthodox Judaism while still allowing for parts of the services to be led by both men and women...
format.
While usually giving his imprimatur to local customs, in the case of the custom to donate firecrackers and fireworks to the synagogue in honour of
Simchat TorahSimchat Torah is a celebration marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle...
, Rabbi Gombiner believed it proof of the effect of allowing boorish commoners to celebrate a scholars' holiday.
Influence
The
Magen Avraham was the subject of a commentary by Samuel Neta HaLevi of Kolin, entitled
Mahatsit ha-shekel,
and another by David Solomon Eibenschutz, entitled
Lebushe Serad.
R.
Yechiel Michel EpsteinYechiel Michel Epstein , often called "the Aruch ha-Shulchan" , was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania...
’s
Aruch HaShulchanAruch HaShulchan is a work of Jewish scholarship, written by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein. The title "Aruch HaShulchan" is a clear allusion to the Shulchan Aruch , the authoritative work of halacha on which it draws...
and R.
Yisrael Meir KaganYisrael Meir Kagan known popularly as The Chofetz Chaim was an influential Eastern European rabbi, Halakhist, posek, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Jewish life.-Biography:...
’s
Mishnah BerurahMishnah Berurah is a work of halakha by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, better known as The Chofetz Chaim...
relied on Gombiner for their acceptance of
KabbalisticKabbalah is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation...
practices.
There is a major dispute in the 17-18th century as to how to figure Rabbinic hours of the day.
One approach (that of Gombiner, in his
Magen Avraham) reckons the day from dawn until nightfall.
The other approach (that of the
Vilna GaonElijah ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra , , was an exceptional Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic world Jewry of the past few centuries...
) reckons the day from sunrise to sunset.
For rituals, which are prescribed in the morning, Magen Avraham's calculations will always be earlier than that of the Vilna Gaon. For rituals, which are prescribed in the afternoon or evening, Magen Avraham's calculations will always be later than that of the Vilna Gaon.
Works
His most important work was his Magan Avraham - commentary on Shulhan Arukh- Orukh Hayyim.
(not to be confused with works by the same title by Avraham Farisol and Avraham the magid of Trisk)
His work includes
Zayit Ra'anan, a commentary on the popular
MidrashMidrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic collection
Yalkut ShimoniThe Yalkut Shimoni or simply Yalkut is an aggadic compilation on the books of the Hebrew Bible. From such older haggadot as were accessible to him, the author collected various interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages, and arranged these according to the sequence of those portions of...
.
He also authored a commentary to the works of the
TosafistsTosafists were medieval rabbis known in Talmudical scholarship as Rishonim who created critical and explanatory glosses on the Talmud. These were collectively called Tosafot ....
on the section of
NezikinFor Jewish law on damages, see Damages Nezikin or Seder Nezikin is the fourth Order of the Mishna...
in the
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
,
published by his grandson in the back of the work by R. Abraham's son-in-law Moshe Yekutiel Kaufman, Lehem Hapanim (1732).
Shemen Sason - commentary on the Torah.
External links