Akiva Eger

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Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761-1837)

Rabbi Akiva Eger or Eiger (1761-1837) (b. 11 Cheshvan 5522, d. 13 Tishei 5598 on the Hebrew Calendar), was a Jewish Talmudic scholar and influential halakhic decisor (posek). While his name is commonly spelled Eiger, his official name was Eger; his first name is also sometimes transliterated as Akiba.

He was born as Akiva Güns (another variant being Akiba ben Moses Guens) in Eisenstadt; the most important town of the Sheva Kehillot (seven Jewish communities) of Burgenland, Hungary. He was a child prodigy and was educated first at the Mattersdorf yeshiva and later by his uncle, Rabbi Wolf Eger (1756-1795) (b. 5516, d. 6 Tishrei 5556), at the Breslau (Wrocław) yeshiva, who later became Rabbi of Tziltz and Leipnik. Out of respect for his uncle he changed his surname to Eiger. He therefore shared the full name Akiva Eiger with his maternal grandfather, the first Rabbi Akiva Eiger (1722-1758) (b. 5482, d. 15 Elul 5518) the Mishnas Derebbi Akiva who was Rabbi of Tziltz, Silesia from 1749 and Pressburg from 1756.

He was the rabbi of Markisch Friedland, Poland from 1791 until 1815; then for the last twenty two years of his life, he was the rabbi of the city of Posen (Poznań). He was a rigorous casuist of the old school, and his chief works were legal notes on the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh. He believed that religious education was enough, and thus opposed the party which favored secular schools. He was a determined foe of the reform movement, which began to make itself felt in his time.

Among his children where his two sons, Abraham (1781-1853) and Solomon (1785-1852), a rabbi in Kalisz, Poland and chief rabbi of Posen from 1837 to 1852. His daughter Sarel (1790-1832) (b. 5550, d. 18 Adar II 5592), was the second wife of the Chasam Soifer (1762-1839) Rabbi of Pressburg.

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Jacob H. Sinason. Gaon of Posen: A Portrait of Rabbi Akiva Guens-Eger. Feldheim, 1990. ISBN 0-87306-548-4.