Rav Akiva Eiger of Posen

Early years

Rav Akiva Eiger of Posen zt"l, the second Rav of that name, was born on Thursday, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5522 (1761), in Eisenstadt, the chief town of the Seven Communities of Burgenland. He was the son of Rav Moshe Ginz and Gittel. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Rav Akiva Eiger of Pressburg, author of Mishnas DeRabbi Akiva.

His father, Rav Moshe Ginz, was a grandson of the famed Rav Moshe Broda, Av Bais Din of Worms, who was the son of Rav Avrohom Broda, author of Aishel Avrohom. His mother, Gittel, was the daughter of the gaon Rav Akiva Eiger the first, who was Rav in Zülz and Pressburg. Her brothers were Rav Yehuda Leib Eiger, Rav in Rotterdam and Halberstadt, and Rav Binyomin Wolf Eiger, Rav in Zülz and Leipnik and a Rosh Yeshiva in Breslau. Out of respect for his uncle, Rav Akiva changed his family name to Eiger.

He had two brothers, Rav Simcha Bunim of Mattersdorf and Shmuel of Eisenstadt, and a sister, Sarah, who married Rav Eliezer Weiler.

Torah and leadership

Rav Akiva was a child prodigy. He began learning with his father, and at the age of seven he went to learn under Rav Nosson Neta Frankfurter in Mattersdorf. At twelve he finished there and traveled to Breslau, where he learned in the yeshiva of his uncle, Rav Binyomin Wolf Eiger, until his marriage.

In 5538 he married Glikcha, daughter of Rav Itzik Margolios of Lisa. They had four children: Rav Avrohom, Rav Shlomo, Shaindel and Sorel. Sorel married Rav Moshe Schreiber of Pressburg, the Chasam Sofer, as his second wife.

In Lisa Rav Akiva learned together with great tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim. They included his brother-in-law, the dayan Rav Yehoshua Feivelman, later Av Bais Din of Satmar, and his relative the gaon Rav Meir Weil, later Rosh Bais Din of Berlin. They also included Rav Zecharia Mendel, son of Tevli, Av Bais Din of Lisa, Rav Yehuda Leib Kalischer, author of Yad HaChazakah and later Av Bais Din of Lisa, and Rav Chaim Auerbach, author of Dvar Mishpat and Av Bais Din of Lunschitz.

The fire and the rabbinate

This quiet period ended on 20 Sivan 5550, when a great fire swept through Lisa. In six hours it burned some 481 homes, among them 196 Jewish households, and only nine houses remained standing. Rav Akiva's own home burned down with everything he owned.

After the fire he moved to Ravitsh, at the invitation of the community, who were delighted to have the gaon living among them. In 5551 (1791) the kehillah of Märkisch Friedland offered him the post of Rav. In his humility he felt unfit, and only after much persuasion did he accept the yoke of the rabbinate. The community also helped him open a yeshiva. He served there until 1815.

On 12 Adar 5556 he lost his first wife, Glikcha, who was laid to rest in Friedland. He later married her niece Breindel, then sixteen years old, the daughter of Rav Yehoshua Feivelman Segal, Av Bais Din of Satmar.

In 5575 (1815) he was appointed Rav of Posen, the chief rabbinic post in all of Prussia, and he held it for the last twenty-two years of his life. His second wife passed away on the third or fourth day of Chol HaMoed Pesach 5596.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Akiva was an outstanding gaon and an influential posek, and he became the foremost leader of European Jewry in the early nineteenth century. His main works were notes and responsa on Shas and the Shulchan Aruch. He was a determined opponent of the Reform movement, which was beginning to make itself felt in his time, and he opposed those who favored secular schools, holding that religious education was enough.

Among his seforim are Gilyon HaShas, his notes on the margins of the Gemara, which he did not originally intend to publish; Tosafos Rav Akiva Eiger, on the commentators of the Mishnah, the Bartenura and the Tosafos Yom Tov; his Shu"t, a collection of responsa; Hagahos Rav Akiva Eiger, on the Magen Avraham and the Taz on the Shulchan Aruch; and Drush VeChiddush. His chiddushim on Shas have also been published as Chiddushei Rav Akiva Eiger.

Later years and passing

Rav Akiva passed away on 13 Tishrei 5598 (1837) in Posen.

Legacy

His son Rav Shlomo was a Rav in Kalisz and then chief Rav of Posen from 1837 until 1852. His daughter Sorel (1790 – 1832) was the wife of the Chasam Sofer (1762 – 1839), Rav of Pressburg.

It is told that When his son Leibel Eiger became a talmid of the Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, Rav Shlomo observed shiva for him. Leibel later went to learn from Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner, author of Mei HaShiloach, who established the Izhbitza-Radzyn dynasty, and after Rav Leiner's passing he became a Rebbe together with Rav Yaakov Leiner.