Rabbi Benjamin of Lida (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: הרב בנימין מלידא ; – 1862) was a 19th-century Hasidic rabbi and kabbalist who served as the first Hasidic rabbi of

Lida Lida ( be, Лі́да ; russian: Ли́да ; lt, Lyda; lv, Ļida; pl, Lida ; yi, לידע, Lyde) is a city 168 km (104 mi) west of Minsk in western Belarus in Grodno Region. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuan ...

, Belarus.

Biography

R. Benjamin was born around 1800 in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. In his early years, he became a disciple of R. Solomon Hayyim Perlow (founder of Koidanover Hasidism) and under the instruction of R. Solomon, he brought Koidanover Hasidism to Lida, establishing a Hasidic community in 1833, which had a synagogue and

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

. In 1854, R. Benjamin became engrossed in a controversy with the city's

Misnagdic ''Misnagdim'' (, "Opponents"; Sephardi pronunciation: ''Mitnagdim''; singular ''misnaged''/''mitnaged'') was a religious movement among the Jews of Eastern Europe which resisted the rise of Hasidism in the 18th and 19th centuries. The ''Mis ...

Chief Rabbi, R. Elijah Schik, which ultimately resulted in R. Elijah leaving Lida and being replaced by R. Mordecai Meltzer. R. Benjamin was a renowned miracle maker and kabbalist, under whose leadership, the city's Hasidic community grew exponentially. R. Benjamin died in 1862.

References

1800 births 1862 deaths Hasidic rabbis Belarusian rabbis 19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire {{Europe-rabbi-stub