Avraham Gombiner
Encyclopedia
Abraham Abele Gombiner (c. 1633 – c. 1683), known as the Magen Avraham, born in Gąbin
(Gombin), Poland
, was a rabbi
, Talmud
ist and a leading religious authority in the Jewish community of Kalish
, Poland
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 Lithuania
, Jacob Isaac Gombiner.
He is known to scholars of Judaism
for his Magen Avraham commentary on the Orach Chayim
section of Rabbi Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch
, which he began writing in 1665 and finished in 1671. His brother Yehudah traveled in 1673 to Amsterdam
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.
. 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 Taz
- Magen David, so he published his father's work under the title Magen Avraham.
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 halakha
h was the incorporation of the Kabbalistic
customs of Safed
, especially those found in Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz
'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 minhag
at the end of his life. (46:6)
Dealing with the widespread practice of hiring gentiles to work for the community on the Sabbath
, 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 smoking
.
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 Torah
(55, 690) This controversial point is discussed in recent responsa
(see Rabbi Yehuda Henkin (Bnei Banim II, Chap. 10) and Rabbi Mendel Shapiro
).. His opinion is one of the sources cited by Rabbi Shapiro and by other proponents of the halakhic legitimacy of the contemporary Partnership Minyan
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 Torah
, Rabbi Gombiner believed it proof of the effect of allowing boorish commoners to celebrate a scholars' holiday.
and another by David Solomon Eibenschutz, entitled Lebushe Serad.
R. Yechiel Michel Epstein
’s Aruch HaShulchan
and R. Yisrael Meir Kagan
’s Mishnah Berurah
relied on Gombiner for their acceptance of Kabbalistic
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 Gaon
) 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.
(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 Midrash
ic collection Yalkut Shimoni
.
He also authored a commentary to the works of the Tosafists
on the section of Nezikin
in the Talmud
,
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.
Gabin
Gąbin is a small town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,230 inhabitants . It is an ancient town, having been founded in the 13th century.-Current events:...
(Gombin), Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe 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...
, was a rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ist and a leading religious authority in the Jewish community of Kalish
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the 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...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe 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 Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Jacob Isaac Gombiner.
He is known to scholars of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
for his Magen Avraham commentary on the Orach Chayim
Orach Chayim
Orach Chayim "manner of life" 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 Aruch
Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
, which he began writing in 1665 and finished in 1671. His brother Yehudah traveled in 1673 to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
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 GodNames of God in Judaism
In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title; it represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relationship of God to the Jewish people and to the world. To demonstrate the sacredness of the names of God, and as a means of showing respect and reverence for...
. 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 Taz
David HaLevi Segal
David ha-Levi Segal , also known as the Turei Zahav after the title of his significant halakhic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, was one of the greatest Polish rabbinical authorities....
- 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 AruchShulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
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 halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
h was the incorporation of the Kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
customs of Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
, especially those found in Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz
Isaiah Horowitz
Isaiah Horowitz, , also known as the Shelah ha-Kadosh after the title of his best-known work, was a prominent Levite rabbi and mystic.-Biography:...
'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 minhag
Minhag
Minhag 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 Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, 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 smoking
Jewish law and history on smoking
This 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 Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
(55, 690) This controversial point is discussed in recent responsa
Responsa
Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Empire:Roman law recognised responsa prudentium, i.e...
(see Rabbi Yehuda Henkin (Bnei Banim II, Chap. 10) and Rabbi Mendel Shapiro
Mendel Shapiro
Mendel 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 Minyan
Partnership minyan
Partnership 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 Torah
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah or Simḥath 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 Epstein
Yechiel Michel Epstein
Yechiel Michel Epstein , often called "the Aruch ha-Shulchan" , was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania...
’s Aruch HaShulchan
Aruch HaShulchan
Aruch HaShulchan is a chapter-by-chapter restatement of the Shulchan Arukh...
and R. Yisrael Meir Kagan
Yisrael Meir Kagan
Yisrael Meir Poupko , 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...
’s Mishnah Berurah
Mishnah Berurah
The Mishnah Berurah is a work of halakha by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan , also colloquially known by the name of another of his books, Chofetz Chaim "Desirer of Life."...
relied on Gombiner for their acceptance of Kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
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 Gaon
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra or Elijah Ben Solomon, , was a Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic 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 Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic collection Yalkut Shimoni
Yalkut Shimoni
The 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 Tosafists
Tosafists
Tosafists were medieval rabbis from France and Germany who are among those known in Talmudical scholarship as Rishonim who created critical and explanatory glosses on the Talmud. These were collectively called Tosafot , because they were additions on the commentary of Rashi...
on the section of Nezikin
Nezikin
For Jewish law on damages, see Damages Nezikin or Seder Nezikin is the fourth Order of the Mishna...
in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
,
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.