“The study of the Torah is the supreme perfection of the soul.”

1) Identity and context

The Vilna Gaon (a-Gaon mi-Vilna, “the Genius of Vilna”) was the the ultimate point of reference of judaism Lithuanian in the EIGHTEENTH century: a talmudist, halajista and kabbalist, the leader of the sector mitnagdí (opposition to the jasidismo). He was born on the April 23, 1720 (Sialiec, today in Belarus), and died on October 9, 1797 in Vilna (today Vilnius). His authority was built on a scholarship encyclopedic and reform silent study that favored the text, the peshat and the critical philological.

2) Biography essential

• Formation and early retirement. A child prodigy, at the age of seven as dictated lessons; from a young age, adopted a life of study almost a hermit, with little activity in formal public and total dedication to biblical texts and talmudic.
• Vilnius pole intellectual. His presence became to Vilnius in the epicenter of the mitnagdismo and a style of study that was rejected by the pilpul and I came back to the direct analysis of the sources.
• Posthumous publication. Almost nothing left in life; their notes and glosses were edited by children and disciples from 1799, and in subsequent decades.

“Every word of Torah that one understands rectifies entire worlds.”

3) Corpus and relevant contributions

a) the Halachah (Shulchan Aruch).
Their Biuréi ha-Gra (glosses) on Orach Chaim and other sections of the Shulchan Aruch set a standard: re-sources talmudic and geónicas, debug, readings, and align the practice with the text. The first edition of Orach Chaim with his comment appeared in Shklov, 1803edited by his sons, and R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov.

b) the Mishnah.
Shenot Eliyahu (especially on Seder Zeraim, then also Taharot) is evidence of its method of textual criticism, versions and computations to clarify essays and measures halájicas. First edition: Lemberg, 1799.

c) Tanakh and exegesis.
Aderet Eliyahu (on the Torah), and comments to Proverbs and other books of the bible show your integration of peshat with traditions midráshicas and kabbalisticalways with control philological.

d) Critical and emendación textual.
He was a pioneer in correct readings of the Talmud and rabbinic literature, according to internal logic and witnesses, a practice that became a benchmark for yeshivot later.

e) Grammar and science helper.
Domino Hebrew grammar, mathematics and astronomy as instruments in the service of the study of the Torah (v. g Ayil Meshulash cited in the tradition). His openness to science instrumental coexists with a criticism of the speculative philosophy unrelated to the text.

“There is wisdom out of the Torah, and all true wisdom is contained in it.”

4) Method: “return to text”

His “reform” pedagogic can be summarized in four vectors:

1. Peshat before pilpul: understanding flat and rigorous text, with strings of sources.
2. Systematic comparison of versions: Talmud, Rishonim and responsa.
3. Rationalisation of practice (minhag) according to primary sources.
4. Use of tools (grammar, computing, astronomy calendar) to illuminate difficult passages.
   This approach shaped the style Lithuanian and, via his disciples, the curriculum of the great yeshivot of the NINETEENTH century.

5) Cabal: integration without antinomianism

The Gaon studied intensely Zohar and the Cabal luriánicabut he argued that no reading mystic may to contradict the Halachah or produce behaviors unrelated to the Torah, the mystical internal dimension the same text revealed. This line was articulated by his disciple R. Chaim of Volozhin in Nefesh hachaim.

“The time is the life of man; the one who wasted destroys its own existence.”

6) Controversy with the jasidismo

It was the face intellectual opposition (mitnagdim) to the nascent jasidismo from 1772 until his death. Supported cherem (excommunication) in 1772 and 1781measures included banning and burning of books in some communities; refused to receive Shneur Zalman of Liadí (Chabad) and other emissaries. Motivations: defense order halachic-communal, wary referrals messianic and rereadings mystical with potential antinomian.

7) the Disciples and schools

Your student most influential, R. Chaim of Volozhin (1749-1821), founded the Yeshiva of Volozhin (Etz Chaim) to 1803, considered the mother of the yeshivot in lithuania, modern; its academic model —analysis of the text, discipline and scale— made to all over the world rabbinic Eastern europe until its closure in 1892 by the pressures of the state.

“The heart of the wise is in your head: think before you speak, and silent before you act.”

8) Eretz Israel and the Perushim

Although the Gaon was not able to emigrate, his disciples —the Perushim— made aliyot between 1808 and 1812 (approx. 500 people), reconfiguring the Old Yishuv ashkenazi in Safed and Jerusalem and leaving footprints liturgical (“minhag ha-Gra”) in the life sinagogal of Jerusalem.

9) Custom and practice (“minhag ha-Gra”)

Many communities (and yeshivot) adopted minhagim associated to their decisions: the order and times of prayers, details of tefillin, sukkah, lulav, and accurate readings; in Jerusalem, a good part of the minhag ashkenazi classic was influenced by his line.

“The secrets of the Torah not to be found in visions or in miracles, but in the profound comprehension of the words.”

10) How to read it today

• For Halachic practice: Biuréi ha-Gra the Shulchan Aruch (start by Orach Chaim). Historical edition: Shklov, 1803.
• To philological method: Shenot Eliyahu (Mishnah, Zeraim/Taharot).
• For biblical exegesis: Aderet Eliyahu (Torah).
• For the synthesis mystical-halachic at your school: Nefesh hachaim (R. Chaim of Volozhin).
• Review academic modern: Immanuel Etkes, The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image (U. California Press).

11) Teachings-key

1. Primacy of the text: all minhag must be based in normative sources (Talmud-Rishonim), and reading clean.
2. Against the pilpul: clarity, logic, and consistency intertextual.
3. Textual criticism responsible: correct versions when the reason and fonts required.
4. Cabal subordinate to Halachah: the mystic does not create license practices.
5. Science instrumentals: grammar, mathematics, astronomy in the service of the Torah; rejection of philosophical speculation autonomous.
6. Order of the community: defense frame rabbinical in front of innovations charismatic in the EIGHTEENTH century (jasidismo).

“The study without practice is like a soul without a body; the practice without study is a body without a soul.”

12) Impact and legacy

Imprint redefined the study in the world Lithuanian: it derived from the resume of Volozhin and his heirs (Mir, Slabodka, Telz, etc), the standard gloss critical editions rabbinical and a ethos sobriety text that lingers in yeshivot and batei midrash. On the historical level, leadership contained temporarily the expansion of hasidic in Lithuania and reallocated the religious practice in Jerusalem via the Perushim.

Conclusion

The Gaon of Vilna embodies a canon rigor: direct reading, textual criticism, halachah refined and cabal integrated. Their combination of asceticism intellectual and methodology philological created a model that, rather than founding an institution of life, he founded a tradition study: lithuania. If you want to delve into what operational (how to study “in the style of the Gaon”), I prepare you a itinerary reading with primary and secondary sources in Spanish and Hebrew, plus a list minhagim the Gra with passages to verify each and every practice.

“The silence preserves the wisdom; the word excessive dilutes it.”