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Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, (Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman), also known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון Der Vilner Goen; Polish: Gaon z Wilna; Lithuanian: Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gra ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 1720 – Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Lithuanian Jewish Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non-hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ha-Gaon mi-Vilna, "the genius from Vilnius".

Through his annotations and emendations of Talmudic and other texts, he became one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. He is considered as one of the Acharonim, and by some as one of the Rishonim.[citation needed] Large groups of people, including many yeshivas, uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites (minhag), the "minhag ha-Gra", named after him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailing Ashkenazi minhag in Jerusalem.[citation needed]

Born in Sielec in the Brest Litovsk Voivodeship (today Sialiec, Belarus), the Gaon displayed extraordinary talent while still a child. By the time he was twenty years old, rabbis were submitting their most difficult halakhic problems to him for legal rulings. He was a prolific author, writing such works as glosses on the Babylonian Talmud and Shulchan Aruch known as Bi'urei ha-Gra ("Elaborations by the Gra"), a running commentary on the Mishnah, Shenoth Eliyahu ("The Years of Elijah"), and insights on the Pentateuch entitled Adereth Eliyahu ("The Cloak of Elijah"), published by his son. Various Kabbalistic works have commentaries in his name, and he wrote commentaries on the Proverbs and other books of the Tanakh later on in his life. None of his manuscripts were published in his lifetime.

When Hasidic Judaism became influential in his native town, the Vilna Gaon joined the "opposers" or Misnagdim, rabbis and heads of the Polish communities, to curb Hasidic influence.[citation needed]

He encouraged his students to study natural sciences, and translated geometry books to Yiddish and Hebrew.[citation needed]

Youth and education[edit]
The Vilna Gaon was born in Sialiec, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on April 23, 1720 as Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman to a well known rabbinical family.

According to legend he had committed the Tanakh to memory by the age of four, and aged seven he was taught Talmud by Moses Margalit, future rabbi of Kėdainiai and the author of a commentary to the Jerusalem Talmud, entitled Pnei Moshe ("The Face of Moses"). He possessed a photographic memory. By eight, he was studying astronomy during his free time. From the age of ten he continued his studies without the aid of a teacher, and by the age of eleven he had committed the entire Talmud to memory.

Later he decided to go into "exile" and he wandered in various parts of Europe including Poland and Germany. By the time he was twenty years old, rabbis were submitting their most difficult halakhic problems to him. He returned to his native city in 1748, having by then acquired considerable renown.

Methods of study[edit]
The Gaon applied rigorous philological methods to the Talmud and rabbinic literature, making an attempt toward a critical examination of the text.

He was a proponent of the Peshat (literal) method, the method based on the literal meaning of the text, and rejected the Pilpul method. The literal teaching method is based on comprehensive knowledge of the sources and understanding the text in its literal form based on accurate sources

-עליות אליהו -"והזהיר מאד גם לתלמידיו שלא ירבו לעסוק בפלפולים וחילוקים"

"ודברי חידודין צוה להמניע" הקדמה לשו"ע

גם מקורבו של הגר"א ר' מנשה מאיליא כתב בספרו אלפי מנשה:

"ולפי המשך רוב גלותנו שהוא קרוב לעקבות משיחנו, ושצריך לפנות את דרך האמת...

וכפי הנראה שלח לנו ה' עיר מן השמיא, הגאון המפורסם אליהו מו"ה אליהו זלה"ה,

שהתחיל קצת להחזיר עטרת התורה ליושנה ע"פ דרכו דרך האמת והפשט.

He devoted much time to the study of the Torah and Hebrew grammar, and was knowledgeable in scientific pursuits of the time. He exhorted his pupils and friends to pursue plain and simple methods of study, and not to neglect secular sciences, maintaining that Judaism could only gain by their study. The Gaon was also attracted to the study of Kabbalah; his controversy with Hasidic Judaism stems not from a rejection of mysticism per se, but from a profoundly different understanding of its teachings, in particular regarding its relationship to halakha and the Ashkenazic minhag.

The Vilna Gaon was modest; declining to accept the office of rabbi, though it was often offered to him. In his later years he also refused to give approbations, though this was the privilege of great rabbis. He led a retiring life, only lecturing from time to time to a few chosen pupils.[citation needed]

In 1755, when the Gaon was thirty-five, Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschütz, then sixty-five years old, requested an examination of his amulets, which were a subject of disagreement between himself and Rabbi Jacob Emden. The Vilna Gaon, in a letter to Eybeschütz, stated his support of Eybeschütz, however he also stated that his opinion would not be of any weight with the contending parties.[citation needed]

א ח ר התלמוד ביס העיון דרכי על * הזהיר ״‘ הס כי רש״י בפי' היטב 'ולעיין

׳שיהא׳־י^ר מתנאיה ז״ל־ל* נמלי'״תוספת ובחידושי למבין מחוד נכוחיס •

רבן* של תנוקות נופי אפי׳י האמת על מודה ״ הקושיות רב 'שונא * העיון

ודברי בלמודיר* ישכיל1יצלימ' אז כי האמת ישוו״נגד השכל'לא מדרך חפציו וכל

החריפים ׳הראמת דלדיסיהרכיס^ החצזדם־• מתלמידים •ל:־גס להמניע צוה חדודין

נותר-בק ״'לא והטהור' הקדוש מפיו יוצאין ־דברי'אמת שמעו כאשר י* השלמים

תיינו ימי מספר כל־ יגענו'/ ,־ואמרו'לריק ׳רוח

"ודברי חידודין צוה להמניע" הקדמה לשו"ע

פשוט וקל". וכתב עוד )ב, א(: "והזהיר מאד גם לתלמידיו שלא ירבו לעסוק בפלפולים וחילוקים".

מרבה בפשטות". רב יעקב לנדא בספרו תולדות אליהו כתב: "נתן עין עיונו... לפרש הכל בדרך....

אמר על השאגת אריה שהוא מרבה אחר הפלפול, והשאגת אריה אמר על הגאון זצ"ל שהוא

הוא עקבי בספרות הגר"א. בספר תוספות מעשה רב כתוב: "גם אמר ]רב חיים מוולאז'ין[ שהגאון

אמר על השאגת אריה שהוא מרבה אחר הפלפול, והשאגת אריה אמר על הגאון זצ"ל שהוא

מרבה בפשטות"

3 The pshat (literal) method The teaching method based on the literal meaning of the text was developed by the Vilna Gaon – R. Eliyahu Kramer (Lithuania, 1720-1797) – at the Volozhin Yeshiva in Lithuania, and implemented by his student, R. Chaim Itzkowitz (Lithuania, 1749- 1821). This method completely rejects the division teaching method that preceded it. The literal teaching method is based on comprehensive knowledge of the sources and understanding the text in its literal form based on accurate sources,13 with no redundant questions in the talmudic texts. The Vilna Gaon applied the literal method by emending the accepted text of the Mishna, Tosefta, Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, and all places where he believed that the original wording had become distorted. The search for the exact version has occupied many sages, but he excelled in it due to the scope of his emendations,14 which were noted as short comments on the talmudic texts that related to clarifications regarding the correct wording. This fact attests to his method of study, which followed 11 DIMITROVSKY, 1975, p. 117. 12 LANDA, 1969, p. 3. 13 KRAMER, 1977, p. 1a-b. 14 ETKES, 1998, p. 44. 5 Arquivo Maaravi: Revista Digital de Estudos Judaicos da UFMG. Belo Horizonte, v. 13, n. 25, nov. 2019. ISSN: 1982-3053. the literal meaning because he did not wish to add his own interpretations to the Babylonian Talmud. The Vilna Gaon calls Talmud instruction – casuistry, and he distinguishes between positive and negative casuistry.15 Positive casuistry is teaching in order to clarify the halakha or desirable ways of conduct. Negative casuistry is study that is not linked to practical actions.16 As stated, R. Chaim Itzkowitz applied the Vilna Gaon's method in a teaching method based on the literal meaning, which was manifested in the attempt to understand the text in light of the Rishonim's interpretations with no unnecessary casuistry.17 The ideology underlying the study method based on the literal meaning is to strive for the truth as reflected in the literal meaning of the text.