Yechezkel ben Yehuda HaLevi Landau (8 October 1713 – 29 April 1793) was an influential
authority
In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''T ...
in
halakha
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
(Jewish law). He is best known for the work ''Noda Biyhudah'' (נודע ביהודה), by which title he is also known.
Biography
Landau was born in
Opatów,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, to a family that traced its lineage back to
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
, and attended ''
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 a ...
'' at
Ludmir and
Brody. In Brody, he was appointed
dayan (rabbinical judge) in 1734.
In 1745 Landau became rabbi of
Yampol. While in Yampol, he attempted to mediate between
Jacob Emden and
Jonathan Eybeschütz in a debate—
"The Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy"—that "had disrupted Jewish communal life for many years". Emden had accused Eybeschuetz of being a crypto
Sabbatean, primarily based on amulets Eybeschuetz had written, which Emden believed contained Sabbatean
kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
. Landau proposed a compromise, in which all amulets allegedly written by Eybeschuetz would be hidden away, and Eybeschuetz would accept to refrain from producing any amulets in the future. Furthermore, all accusations against Eybeschuetz would stop, and no further polemics would be published. Landau's role in the Emden - Eybeschuetz controversy is described as "tactful" and brought him to the attention of the community of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
—where, in 1755, he was appointed
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
. He also established a ''yeshiva'' there;
Avraham Danzig, author of ''
Chayei Adam'', is amongst his best known students.
Landau was highly esteemed not only by the community, but also by others; and he stood high in favor in government circles. Thus, in addition to his rabbinical tasks, he was able to intercede with the government on various occasions when anti-Semitic measures had been introduced. Though not opposed to secular knowledge, he objected to "that culture which came from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
", in particular
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the '' Haskalah'', or ...
's translation of the
Pentateuch
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
.
His son,
Samuel Landau
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...
(1752 – 31 October 1834, Prague), was chief
dayyan of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. Landau was the champion of Orthodox Rabbinism, and when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Austrian emperor planned the establishment of Jewish theological seminaries, Landau was one of the rabbis that objected thereto. He had a controversy on this subject with
Baruch Jeiteles
Baruch Jeitteles ( he, ברוך ייטלס) (22 April 1762 – 18 December 1813) was a Jewish scholar, writer, and doctor from Bohemia, associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement (''Haskalah''). His teachers were Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of P ...
(Phinehas Hananiah Argosi di Silva), who, under the title of ''Ha-Oreb'', published (Vienna, 1795) Landau's letter to him and his own rejoinder. Landau published his responsa under the title of ''Shibat Ẓiyyon'' (Prague, 1827). He edited his father's ''Ahabat Ẓiyyon'' and ''Doresh le-Ẓiyyon'' (ib. 1827), adding to the former work four homilies of his own, and to the latter a number of halakic discourses.
ewish Encyclopedia
Works
His main work of
responsa
''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars ...
, titled Noda Biyhudah (נודע ביהודה, "Known in Judah", a reference to Psalms 76:2 and his father's name), is one of the principal sources of Jewish law of his age. Famous decisions include those limiting
autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any d ...
to prevent a clear and present danger in known others. This collection was esteemed by rabbis and scholars, both for its logic and for its independence with regard to the rulings of other ''
Acharonim
In Jewish law and history, ''Acharonim'' (; he, אחרונים ''Aḥaronim''; sing. , ''Aḥaron''; lit. "last ones") are the leading rabbis and poskim (Jewish legal decisors) living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifi ...
'' as well as its simultaneous adherence to the writings of the ''
Rishonim''.
Other works
*''Dagul Mervavah'' on the
Shulkhan Arukh
The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in ...
(cf.
Song of Solomon 5:10)
*''Tziyun le-Nefesh Chayah'' (abbreviated as ''Tzelach'', named in reference to his mother, whose name was Chayah) on the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
.
*''Drushei HaTzlach'', a collection of sermons.
*''Ahavas Tzion''
*''Doresh LeTzion''
Notable views
Returning to the Talmud
Landau was disturbed by the increasing influence of non-Talmudic sources on the Jewish community. He believed that many kabbalistic concepts were being understood in a heretical fashion, and was especially concerned with the prospect of the kabbalistic ideology of the Sabbatean movement infiltrating the populace. Landau frequently spoke against teaching Kabbalah to the masses, and was echoed in this regard by his student,
Elazar Fleckeles
Elazar Fleckeles (August 26, 1754 in Prague – April 27, 1826) was a Bohemian rabbi and author.
Biography
Fleckeles was a pupil of and Yechezkel Landau. At the age of twenty-four he became rabbi of Kojetein, a small town in Moravia. In 1780 he ...
, who praised the government for instituting laws limiting the study of kabbalah. In his responsa, when asked about matters that had no source in the Talmud, Landau would often respond, "it is not my way to study any issue which is not discussed in the Talmud". He responded in such a manner to inquiries about the ethical will of Rabbi
Yehuda haChasid, which contains various instructions not found in the Talmud, a question about the proper manner of writing certain letters in the Torah scroll according to kabbalistic literature, and other similar questions.
Opinion on the Zohar
In his
sefer ''Derushei HaTzlach'', Landau argued that the
Zohar
The ''Zohar'' ( he, , ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five ...
can not be considered reliable, since it only came into the hands of the Jewish people many hundreds of years after
Rashbi
Shimon bar Yochai ( Zoharic Aramaic: שמעון בר יוחאי, ''Shim'on bar Yoḥai'') or Shimon ben Yochai (Mishnaic Hebrew: שמעון בן יוחאי, ''Shim'on ben Yoḥai''), also known by the acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century ''tannaiti ...
's death, and thus lacks an unbroken ''mesorah'' as to its authenticity, among other reasons.
Clashes with the haskalah movement
Landau condemned the
haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
movement in harsh terms. In numerous public sermons, he campaigned against the study of heretical philosophy. He particularly singled out
Hartwig Wessely
Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely ( yi, נפתלי הירץ וויזעל, translit=Naftali Hirtz Vizel; 9 December 1725 – 28 February 1805) was an 18th-century German-Jewish Hebraist and educationist.
Family history
One of Wessely's ancestors, ...
for criticism after the publication of the latter's ''Divrei Shalom V'emes'', which advocated abandoning the traditional Jewish educational system, in favor of one with an emphasis on secular studies.
Opposition to Chasiddus
Landau was a staunch opponent of the nascent
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism ( Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of conte ...
movement. In one response, he writes "...In this generation of ours
eoplehave abandoned God’s Torah and the source of living waters–the two Talmuds, Bavli and Yerushalmi–to dig for themselves broken cisterns. And in the haughtiness of their hearts they exalt themselves; each one says "I am the one who sees, to me the gates to heaven have opened, and on my account the world is sustained". These
eopleare the destroyers of the generation and of this orphaned generation I say that God's ways are just, and the righteous shall walk in them, and the ''Chasidim'' shall stumble in them
his is an alteration of Hoshea 14:14, in which the prophet says that ''sinners'' will stumble in them..."
Opposition to the Sabbatean movement
According to Sid Z. Leiman and Maoz Kahana, although Landau was extremely active in combating the Sabbatean movement, he believed the most effective means of eradicating it would be to aggressively counter overt Sabbateanism, while ignoring those Sabbateans who stayed hidden. Simultaneously, Landau sought to weaken the appeal of kabbalah (the study of which often lured people to the Sabbatean movement). Thus, Landau aimed to deprive the Sabbateans of any platform, and cause the Sabbatean movement to wither on its own. Besides the specific debate over the status of Jonathan Eybeschuetz, Jacob Emden expressed strong disagreement with Landau's approach, advocating instead for a far more aggressive anti Sabbatean strategy.
References
External links
Ezekiel ben Judah Landau jewishencyclopedia.com
jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Rabbi Ezkiel Landau (5473-5553; 1713-1793) chabad.org
*
Dagul MervavahHaNoda Bihudah UmishnatoNoda Bihudah, Prague, 1776Noda Bihudah, Mahadura Kamma, New York, 1960Noda Bihudah, Mahadura Tinyana, New York, 1960Ziun L'nefesh Chaya on BrachotZiun L'nefesh Chaya on BeitzaZiun L'nefesh Chaya on PsachimDrushei HaTzlachAhavas TziyonDoresh LetziyonDeists, Sabbatians and Kabbalists in Prague: A Censored Sermon of R. Ezekiel Landau, 1770 (Hebrew)Eulogy on Queen Maria Theresa*
''Shevaḥ ṿe-hodaʼah ʻal hatslaḥot adonenu ha-Ḳesar Yozef ha-sheni''is a digitized sermon
Leo Baeck Institute, New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landau, Yechezkel
1713 births
1793 deaths
People from Opatów
Polish Orthodox rabbis
18th-century Polish–Lithuanian rabbis
Czech Orthodox rabbis
Rabbis of Prague
Exponents of Jewish law
Rabbis
Authors of books on Jewish law