Shaagas Aryeh

Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher Ginzburg – the "Baal Shaagas Aryeh" - resembled his name (Aryeh means "lion").

Yahrzeit - 25 Tammuz

Resting place – Metz, France

He had a large head, like a lion's, eyes as bright as smoldering coals, and long, flowing hair. His appearance inspired both fear and respect.

Rabbi Aryeh Leib was born around 1695 in the Minsk region. He first served as Rav and Rosh Yeshiva of Minsk. Although he was respected for his scholarship, his sharp criticism of other rabbis and their views was viewed negatively by the community.

His debates with Yechiel Halperin, the rabbi of Minsk and head of the yeshiva, over the role of pilpul (dialectical reasoning) in teaching Talmud led to his forced departure from Minsk in 1742.

Some time later, he was appointed Rav of Volozhin. There he headed a yeshiva and had many students.

Rav Aryeh served as rabbi of Volozhin between 1750 and 1755, but he had a difficult relationship with the community's leaders. There he put the finishing touches on his collection of responsa titled "Shaagas Aryeh" ("The Roar of the Lion," 1755). This work brought him lasting recognition and has since been reprinted at least 40 times, still considered a very important work of responsa today. The Shaagas Aryeh rejected the use of pilpul and insisted on a direct approach to the text of the Talmud, without giving special weight to the contributions of sixteenth-to-eighteenth-century authors.

He wished to continue the work of the Rishonim (the rabbinic scholars of earlier generations).

He lived in poverty - his entire salary amounted to a very small sum, and his wife had to work in a bakery, kneading dough, to earn a loaf of bread as wages. Rav Aryeh owned only one suit, which he wore both on Shabbat and on weekdays.

After 1755, Rav Aryeh spent some time in Frankfurt and Berlin, but eventually returned to Volozhin, where during this period his student was Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.

Rav Ginzburg remained there until 1764, then moved from city to city, including Vilna, where he met the Gaon, and then returned to Germany. This was a period of self-imposed exile; moving from town to town, he carried on his shoulder, like a poor beggar, a sack containing his tallit, tefillin, and a copy of the Rambam.

In 1766, he was invited to serve in Metz, one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities in Europe, known for its outstanding rabbis. The French king sanctioned his appointment as rabbi, and his contract with the community guaranteed him 12 years of service.

One villager took pity on him and gave him lodging in an attic for several weeks. One evening after a meager dinner, Rabbi Aryeh Leib was studying Torah by the light of a tiny oil lamp while his wife sat by the warm stove knitting socks. Suddenly he began to weep bitterly.

- "Leib, why are you crying?" his wife asked.

- "Look how comfortable we are," he said, "here, in this warm house, while I study Torah by lamplight and you sit by the warm stove knitting socks. Who knows whether we are now using up our share of the World to Come while still in this world," and he continued to weep.

This is what he usually did: wherever he traveled, he stayed at the "inn" of the poor and spent the night there.

Once, during his many wanderings, he arrived in the city of Breslau in Germany, whose rabbi was Rabbi Yechiel Berlin. He went straight to the rabbi's house, entered the kitchen, and handed the rebbetzin a pot and some barley to prepare a meal for him. Rabbi Aryeh Leib was very strict regarding the prohibition on new grain, so he ate very little. The rebbetzin was not used to such a guest and immediately told her husband about this strange visitor. Rabbi Yechiel came out to meet him, and one glance was enough to understand that this was an extraordinary man. He began discussing Torah with him, and from what he said, Rabbi Yechiel Berlin understood that he was speaking with no ordinary person.

Before leaving the city, Rav Aryeh Leib turned to him and said: "I am amazed to see a rabbi who lives in wealth and honor, yet is still able to learn. This is one of the wonders I have been privileged to see in my lifetime."

Meanwhile, he published his book "Shaagas Aryeh", which brought him great renown and revealed him as a man whose insight and intellect had no equal in his generation.

Once the Shaagas Aryeh arrived in Königsberg, where the rabbi was Aryeh Leib Epstein (author of "HaPardes"). Without revealing his identity, he went to the rabbi's house and began discussing Torah with him.

He dominated the discussion, so the author of "HaPardes" went to his library and took out the book "Shaagas Aryeh" to prove one of his points. Rabbi Aryeh Leib smiled and said: "The Rav knows my book, but does not know its author."

Rav Epstein looked at his guest and shuddered. He saw before him a man with the head of a lion and eyes like burning coals, and realized he was speaking with the Shaagas Aryeh himself.

He asked forgiveness for not having received him properly, and prepared a special room for him in his house. Rav Epstein cherished every day spent with him discussing Torah.

Around this time, the people of Metz offered Rav Epstein a contract to become their rabbi. Rav Epstein took this contract and passed it on to the Shaagas Aryeh - this is how he became the rabbi of Metz at the age of 70.

The people of Metz were overjoyed to have such a great rabbi, but their joy was not complete, because he was 70 years old at the time. Sensing that their joy was mixed with sorrow, the Shaagas Aryeh addressed them and said: "The days of my life have been unhappy. I have been persecuted, and I have lived a life of wandering, so I have aged before my time. But I promise you that, G-d willing, I will remain with you as your Rav for at least another 20 years."

His promise was fulfilled, and he remained the Rav of the noble city of Metz for 20 years.

The great lion found rest there. He studied Torah day and night in holiness and purity. He did not sleep in a bed and did not consume any animal products except on Shabbat and holidays. He lost his eyesight when he became very old, and so he studied Torah from memory, knowing it by heart.

His student, Rabbi Gedaliah Rothenburg, wrote down his commentaries and published them in a book titled "Turei Even." In the same way, he published the book "Gevurat Ari."

When the book "Shaagas Aryeh" was first published, it was full of abbreviations, because the author was poor at the time and did not have enough money to buy more paper. So he wrote as much as possible using abbreviations. Later, publishers reprinted it and spelled out all the shorthand notations to make it easier to read. From his work it is evident that he based his halachic rulings on his own conclusions drawn from the Gemara and commentators, without taking into account the opinions of other poskim.

Moreover, according to the Vilna Gaon, he was able to review the entire Talmud in just one hour to find the proof he was looking for.

Rabbi Aryeh Leib died at a ripe old age on 25 Tammuz 5545 (1785), at the age of 90.

Once he remained alone in the Beit Midrash where he studied. At some point he wanted to consult a book and went to the cabinet to take it from the shelf. However, the shelf and all its contents of books collapsed on him. When he was finally lifted up, he said with a smile: "All the books whose authors I argued with and criticized have now fallen upon me. And while I was buried under these books, I made peace with them. However, only Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, author of "Levushim", refused to forgive me, and it is because of him that I am now leaving this world." At that moment his soul departed.

Sipurei Tzadikim

It is written: "Pharaoh said to Yaakov: How many are the days of the years of your life?"

Yaakov answered Pharaoh: "The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years; few and hard have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning." (Bereishit 47:8-9)

When the Gaon Rav Aryeh Leib Ginzburg, author of the "Shaagas Aryeh," was appointed rabbi of Metz, some members of the community expressed concern about his advanced age (he was about 70 years old at the time).

The Shaagas Aryeh raised this issue during his next public sermon. He began with Yaakov's answer to Pharaoh: "The days of my life have been few and hard," and pointed out that neither Pharaoh's question to his guest nor the guest's answer is quite clear. This is because a person, upon first meeting a guest, does not usually ask his age, and a guest does not usually complain about his troubles. In fact, Yaakov's answer seemingly had nothing to do with Pharaoh's question.

Rabbi Aryeh Leib explained that Pharaoh knew that Egypt had experienced abundance thanks to the merit of Yaakov. In fact, Yaakov appeared to Pharaoh so old that he did not think he would live much longer. Therefore Pharaoh was concerned about his age and asked him about it. Yaakov, well aware of this, told Pharaoh that he was in fact not as old as he seemed, for he had not yet reached the age of his fathers. Indeed, his hair had turned gray only because of the many misfortunes that had befallen him.

"This is also my case," the Shaagas Aryeh continued. "The days of my life have been few and hard. I was persecuted and exiled, and age has overtaken me. Nevertheless, I promise to remain with you for a long time."

Before this, several people in Minsk literally persecuted the Shaagas Aryeh when he served as Rosh Yeshiva, and he was forced to leave Minsk. At that time, there lived in Minsk a tzadeikes named Blumke Vilenkin. She supported the Shaagas Aryeh, helped him financially, and fed him.

She even built a Beit Midrash for him, which from that time until World War II was called the "Blumke Kloiz." Later, thanks to her support, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and his students founded a yeshiva in this Beit Midrash, where the greatest rabbis of the generations served as Rosh Yeshiva.

It is said that the Shaagas Aryeh blessed this generous woman to build a synagogue in Minsk and another in the Holy Land. Many years later, when Blumke turned 80, she became eager to fulfill the tzadik's promise and travel to Eretz Yisrael. She went to Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and asked him whether she should go or not.

Rabbi Chaim told her: "Since you already hold the blessing of the Shaagas Aryeh, why are you in such a hurry to leave? Who knows how long you will live afterward? In any case, he promised that you would build a synagogue in Eretz Yisrael, so it is better to wait and see how things unfold."

So Blumke obeyed Rav Chaim and remained in Minsk. Only many years later, when she reached a very old age, did she travel to the Holy Land and build a synagogue, just as the Shaagas Aryeh had promised her. As soon as it was built, the tzadeikes departed this world.

During the ten years the Shaagas Aryeh lived in Minsk, his constant disputes with the city's chief rabbi, the kabbalist and Torah scholar known as the "Minsk Gaon," Rav Yechiel Halperin, reached such intensity that the latter's supporters decided to expel the rebel from the community. And they did so in the most hurtful and humiliating way: they did not even allow him to take Shabbat candles with him!

Crossing the Plebanski Bridge, Aryeh Leib stopped for a moment, turned his face toward the river, and cried out an ominous curse. The boys running after the cart froze and, in horror, covered their faces with their hands. And almost immediately, from the east, from the Golden Hill church, the wind drove toward the city a heavy cloud shaped like a tall, thin man with the flaps of a black cloak spread wide. By evening, one of the most terrible floods in the history of Minsk had begun.

At the edge of town, a woman quietly approached the cart in which the Talmudic scholar was setting off into exile. History has preserved her name - Blumke the baker woman. In her hands she held two fresh challahs and a package of Shabbat candles. Blumke handed her modest gifts to Aryeh Leib's wife. Legend says that the disgraced sage, moved to tears by this unexpected kindness, blessed the giver, promising that she would grow rich from her challahs. And so it happened: Blumke not only built the first large bakery in Minsk, but made Minsk bread famous as far away as Vilna! Aryeh Leib ben Asher was undoubtedly a man of tremendous spiritual power - for two centuries his curse hung over the city like a sword of Damocles. The residents of Minsk finally rid themselves of the floods only by the mid-1950s, when the Minsk Sea (reservoir) was created. The site for the dam's foundation was cleared by explosion: only in this way could the enormous quicksand of many-meter-deep silt deposits be removed. It is said that when the explosion thundered and particles of silt flew up several kilometers into the air (20 tons of TNT), many thought they saw a giant shadow rise from the earth to the sky, resembling the figure of a man in a long black cloak. The demolition workers said it was so terrifying that even non-believers began crossing themselves!

(from a trip to Kivrei Tzadikim in Alsace-Lorraine with Rabanit Chava Kuperman; https://hevratpinto.org/tzadikim_eng/099_rabbi_aryeh_leib_ginsburg.html; https://chassidus.ru/posts/2022/09/21/blagoslovenie-shaagat-are.htm )