Talk:Judah Loew ben Bezalel

Maharal`s birthdate
I think it is very problematic to state 1525 as birth year of the Maharal. The exact birth year is unknown and many sources and scholars assume that the Maharal was born in 1512. Some think he might be born around 1520, and it is only a minority of scholars who believe Rabbi Loew to be born in 1525. For centuries the Maharal was believed to be born in 1511 and until now there is no proof that he was born later.


 * Do you have any supporting evidence, e.g. an article discussing this? JFW | T@lk  22:10, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

For example Andre Neher, an outstanding Maharal-expert, supports 1512. mz 13:42, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Maharal`s Death Date
August 22, 1609 does not compute to Elul 18, 5369 in the Gregorian or Julian calendars. Bohemia and Moravia changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1584, and 18 Aug 1609 seems to convert to 18 Elul using the Gregorian calendar. I tend to assume that the Jewish Yahzeit would be the more accurate, and would probably use 18 Aug.
 * Based on the Maharal's monument epitaph as quoted by Gal Ed, Megilas Yuchsin and others, the death date is Thursday 18 Elul [5]369 that computes to September 7th in the Julian Calendar (in use in Prague at the time) or September 17th 1609. I edited the article accordingly. KosherJava (talk) 02:58, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Low or Loew
Most English sources I am aware of give his name as Loew, not Low. Should this be the default here as well? Jayjg 16:33, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * It makes preciously little difference. We could try googling for both, and the most frequent term wins :-). JFW | T@lk  22:41, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Googling for "Maharal Low" gives 888 results, most of which seem Wikipedia mirrors. "Maharal Loew" gives >600 links to other important sites (e.g. OU.ORG), suggesting that we ought to move this page. I'm doing it now. JFW | T@lk  22:43, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Actually, it's Löw. Loew is the standard German transcription. Googling "Rabbi L&ouml;w" gives 2900 results, "Rabbi Loew" 2300, while "Rabbi Low" only 570. -- mz 13:39, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Right, but most English keyboards don't have the umlaut, so English typically uses oe. Jayjg 02:40, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Shelley
I removed:


 * It has also been thought that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was based partly on the story of the Maharal's golem. 

This rather bold and imaginitive assertion lacked a source. Unless anyone can support this I suspect it may not be worthy of inclusion. JFW | T@lk  15:15, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

removed the description of Golem as homunculus - it being inaccurate.

Golem Stories
I added it because it focuses on the Maharal, in the production I saw

Great sentence!
I love this sentence: "According to the myth he supposedly created using mystical magical powers based on the esoteric knowledge of how God created Adam, but there is no contemporary evidence that this is true." It's not so much the missing object, or the hidden Beatles reference. It's the assurance, for those who believe that he actually "created [something] using mystical magical powers based on the esoteric knowledge of how God created Adam" that "there is no contemporary evidence that this is true." Whew, you can't imagine the relief I felt!

Maybe we should rewrite this? 85.164.238.95 (talk) 10:44, 28 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I deleted the crazy part
 * Willi5willi5 (talk) 00:02, 20 October 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not at all crazy. There's no reason he couldn't have created a golem.  There's just no evidence that he did.  -- Zsero (talk) 01:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Tomb photo?
Is the tomb still in existence? The photo in the article is B&W and looks pretty old. --24.21.149.124 (talk) 09:57, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes it is still in existence. You can find newer versions on flickr, though some of the photos on flickr are actually the incorrect one.KosherJava (talk) 17:12, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Maharal's education
The article states that "He received his formal education in various yeshivas (Talmudical schools)." Do we have any evidence of this? My understanding is that he was an autodidact; there seems to be more documentation of this (or at least of the myth, if it is one), whereas there is no evidence of his having studied in any yeshiva at all. AngerBoy (talk) 05:19, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Golem
I have removed most of the material about the golem legend. There is no point in listing the various versions of the story. There is consensus among historians and critics that they date from the 1830s and there have been so many of them that the list could go on endlessly. The subject is treated in detail in the main article, Golem. Marshall46 (talk) 12:57, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Gur Aryeh
This is the complete thing at HebrewBooks.org. http://www.hebrewbooks.org/44297 71.163.117.143 (talk) 21:27, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

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