Eliezer Gordon

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Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841-1910) also known as Reb Laizer Telzer, served as the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.

[edit] Early years

Rabbi Eliezer Gordon was born in 1841 in the Lithuanian village of Chernian, near Vilna. His father, Avrohom Shmuel Gordon, was a student of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. As a youngster, he studied in the Zaretza Yeshiva in Vilna. From there, he transferred to the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter in Kovno. Among the yeshiva's outstanding students at the time were Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer, Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, Rabbi Yerucham Perlman and Rabbi Jacob Joseph.

Rabbi Salanter realized that Rabbi Gordon had great potential and appointed him a teacher (maggid shiur) in the yeshiva at a young age. After his father-in-law's death, Rabbi Gordon succeeded the latter as Rabbi of Kovno - but he only stayed for three months. On Tuesday 24th March (6th Nissan) 1874, Rabbi Gordon took over the position of Chief Rabbi at Kelm, where he remained for nine years and founded a Yeshiva. From there, he headed to Slabodka, where he served as Rabbi for about six months. He finally relocated to Telz in 1884, to serve as Rabbi.

[edit] Telz

In 1875, Rabbis Meir Atlas, Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim and Shlomo Zalman Abel had founded the Telz Yeshiva. As Rabbi of the town, Rabbi Gordon was also appointed head of the fledgling institution. He instituted numerous innovative ideas in the yeshiva which have since become accepted as standard practice in many contemporary yeshivas.

1. Hitherto, yeshivas grouped all their students into one general class (shiur). Rabbi Gordon, however, divided the yeshiva into various classes commensurate with a student’s age and intellectual level.
2. Rabbi Gordon also promoted a new approach to curriculum in the yeshiva, based primarily on logic and the understanding of the Talmud. While other yeshivas primarily analyzed the later commentaries on the Talmud, such as the Pnei Yehoshua, Maharsha and Maharam Schiff, Rabbi Gordon directed students to probe the earlier works of the Rishonim, such as Ramban, Rashba and Ritva. Nonetheless, he also included the works of certain Acharonim into the curriculum, such as the Ketzos Hachoshen, Nesivos Hamishpat and Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s works.
3. A student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, Rabbi Gordon advocated the study of ethics (mussar) in the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon appointed a special teacher of ethics (mashgiach) to supervise the students spiritual development and to shape their characters according to the approach of Rabbi Salanter. The yeshiva’s first mussar mashgiach was Rabbi Ben Zion Kranitz, a student of Rabbi Simcha Zissel of Kelm. Rabbi Kranitz was very mild mannered, and did not force his students to accept the mussar approach. In 1897, however, Rabbi Gordon engaged a new mussar mashgiach - the dynamic Rabbi Leib Chasman, who instituted a very strict mussar regime in the yeshiva. Many of the students opposed this approach, which caused dissent among the student body.

Rabbi Gordon also felt that important to the success of the yeshiva was employing the highest standard of teachers. Under Rabbi Gordon’s leadership, the yeshiva hired Rabbi Shimon Shkop, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz ("Reb Chaim Telzer"). Rabbi Gordon tried, unsuccessfully to hire Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Rabinowitz ("Reb Itzele Ponovezher") to teach at the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon himself delivered the highest-level class (shiur).

[edit] Death

In 1908, a fire broke out in Telz, destroying all of the wooden homes in the town, including the yeshiva. In 1910, Rabbi Gordon, who was nearly 70, traveled to Berlin and London along with his wife and younger friend Rabbi Aharon Walkin - the Teshuvos Zekan Aharon of Pinsk - to raise funds for rebuilding the homes and the yeshiva. It was winter, and Rabbi Gordon’s doctors warned him that England's weather was dangerous to his heath, especially since he had suffered a heart attack a few years earlier. Nonetheless, Rabbi Gordon could not be deterred.

While in London, Rabbi Gordon suffered a fatal heart attack. His funeral attracted one of the largest crowds London had ever seen; 50,000 mourners at its height.

Dayan Shmuel Yitzchok Hillman of Glasgow and several leading European Rabbis (who happened to be in London at the time) such as Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein of Slabodka, Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (the Ridvaz) of Slutzk and Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the Aderet) delivered tearful eulogies in Yiddish. Eulogies were also delivered in English by Dayan Moses Hyamson of the London Beth Din and Dr Moses Gaster, Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese community. Rabbi Gordon was buried in the Edmonton Federation Cemetery.