Aryeh Leib ben Saul
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Aryeh Leib ben Saul Lowenstam (ca. 1690, Cracow – April 2, 1755, Amsterdam) was a Polish rabbi.
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[edit] Life
Aryeh Leib came of a famous family of rabbis. His father Saul had been rabbi of Cracow from 1700 to 1704, his grandfather was Rabbi Hoeschl of Cracow. In 1707 in Berlin he married Miriam, the oldest daughter of Ẓebi Ashkenazi, then rabbi in Altona, and continued his studies under his father-in-law, with whom he went to Amsterdam, and thence to Poland.
His first known rabbinical position was in Dubno[1]. He was elected rabbi of Dukla in 1717[1]. Through the influence of his relatives he then obtained the rabbinical position in Tarnopol in 1720[1] (or 1718[citation needed]), the former incumbent having been ousted by the officials of the government to make room for him. This interference on the part of the civic authorities naturally aroused great opposition to him in the congregation, and Aryeh Loeb was deposed in 1724. Subsequently he was elected Rabbi of Rzeszow from 1724-1728[2]. In 1728 he was appointed as Rabbi of both the towns of Glogau and Lviv, a position held until 1740[2]. In 1740 he was appointed Rabbi of Amsterdam (a position that was offered to his father Saul years earlier[2]), a position he held until his death in 1755. A call was extended to him from Prague in 1751, but he did not accept it. While the Jewish Encyclopedia is doubtful of whether he was rabbi in Lviv, as stated by Buber (Anshe Shem, p. 38), Dembitzer in the Klilat Yofi [2] and Reuven Margaliot [1] provide proof of his position in Lviv/Lemberg, with Dembitzer stating that he held both positions simultaneously, while Margaliot is of the opinion that he changed positions a number of times in those years between the rabbinate of Glogau and Lviv.
[edit] Works
Aryeh did not publish any books, and what there is of his exists in the works of others—as in the responsa of Ẓebi Ashkenazi, No. 76; in those of Mordecai of Düsseldorf (Maamar Mordecai, Nos. 62, 63, Brünn, 1790), and in the works of his son Saul, Binyan Ariel (Amsterdam, 1778)—and shows no originality. He took an active part in the controversy between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschütz, and sided with the former, who was his wife's brother. His letters on that controversy are full of invectives against Eybeschütz (see Emden's Sefat Emet, p. 16, Lemberg, 1877). According to the testimony of his brother-in-law, Jacob Emden (see the latter's autobiography, Megillat Sefer, pp. 21, 68, Warsaw, 1896), he was a man of mediocre abilities, whose scientific attainments were not above the practical requirements for the rabbinical office.
[edit] Descendants
Of his sons, one, Saul Aryeh, was his successor, while the other, who called himself Hirschel Lewin or Levin, was Chief rabbi in London and Berlin. The son of the latter was Chief rabbi Solomon Herschell, first Chief Rabbi of the British Empire. Saul's daughter Sarah Leah was the wife of Yitzhak HaLevi, the rabbi of Krakow from 1776 till his death in 1799. Yitzhak HaLevi's son Tzvi Hirsch David Ha-Levi was Acting Rabbi of Krakow from 1799 and formally appointed Rabbi of Krakow in 1816 till his death in 1831.
[edit] Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- S. Buber, Anshe Shem, pp. 37 et seq., Cracow, 1895
[edit] External links
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Aryeh Loeb Ben Saul" by Gotthard Deutsch, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Amsterdam" by Richard Gottheil and Sigmund Seeligmann, a publication now in the public domain.
