Rav Yaakov Emden

Early years

Rav Yaakov Emden zt"l, known as the Yaavetz, was born on 4 June 1697 in Altona, near Hamburg. His father, the Chacham Tzvi, was then chief rabbi of the three sister communities of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck, known in Jewish history as Kehillos AHU, after the Hebrew initials of the three towns. His family name was in truth Ashkenazi. He was called Emden after the city where he served as Rav, and Yaavetz after the initials of Yaakov Ben Tzvi. Through his father he was a descendant of Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm.

His first teacher was his father, a famous Torah scholar and Rav of his time. From him Rav Yaakov inherited a fiery nature and a fierce opposition to the movement of the false messiah Shabsai Tzvi (Sabbatai Zevi). That movement had long since been proven false, yet it still had secret followers. Like his father, Rav Yaakov was determined to hunt them out and expose them at all costs.

He learned Gemara with his father, first in Altona and then in Amsterdam from 1710 to 1714, until he was about seventeen or eighteen. In 1715 he married Rachel, daughter of Rav Mordechai ben Naftali HaKohen, the head of a great yeshiva in Ungarish-Brod, Moravia. He spent three years there, serving as a private lecturer in Gemara and giving most of his time to diligent study. In his spare moments he studied languages, grammar and philosophy, and he became well versed in every branch of Torah literature. Later he also studied Kabbalah. He made an effort to learn Latin and Dutch, but held that Jews should turn to secular subjects only when Torah study was not possible.

Torah and leadership

After three years he left his father-in-law's home and yeshiva and became a traveling dealer in jewelry and other goods, since he did not want to become a paid rabbi if he could help it. He never stopped learning on his journeys, and wherever he went he preached and rebuked communities and their leaders when he was not satisfied with their religious conduct.

In 1728 he was persuaded to accept the call of the community of Emden to fill its vacant rabbinical post. He held it for four years, in continuous strife with those who did not live up to his expectations. In 1733 he gave up the post and returned to his native Altona, where he remained for the rest of his life, more than forty years of tireless struggle for his convictions. He held no official rabbinic position there. He received permission to keep a synagogue of his own and, with the approval of the King of Denmark, he established a printing press. He earned his living from printing seforim and from his business in gems.

Rav Yaakov had been on friendly terms with Rav Moshe Hagiz, head of the wealthy Portuguese community in Altona, but a slander later turned Rav Moshe against him. His relations with Rav Yechezkel Katzenelenbogen, chief rabbi of the three communities, a post that had been held by the Chacham Tzvi, began well but soon worsened. Rav Yaakov criticized the chief rabbi's rulings openly, regardless of his age and position, for when he believed himself right he respected no one who disagreed with him. For sixteen years he was a bitter opponent of the chief rabbi, until the latter's passing.

The controversy with Rav Yonasan Eybeschutz

When Rav Yonasan Eybeschutz of Metz became chief rabbi of the three communities, Rav Yaakov suspected him of being a secret follower of Shabsai Tzvi. His suspicion rested chiefly on amulets written by Rav Yonasan, in which he saw Sabbatean allusions. He denounced him publicly, declared in his own synagogue that the writer of the amulets was a heretic who deserved excommunication, and demanded that he be excommunicated.

Most of the community, including Rav Aryeh Leib HaLevi Epstein of Konigsberg, supported Rav Yonasan, whom they knew as an unusually pious man and an outstanding scholar. The council condemned Rav Yaakov as a slanderer and called him a troublemaker. People were forbidden, under threat of excommunication, to attend his synagogue, and he was barred from printing. When he refused to leave Altona, relying on the king's charter, the council ordered him out. Threatened with violence, and fearing for his life, he left in 1751 and took refuge in Amsterdam, in the household of his brother-in-law, Rav Aryeh Leib ben Shaul, Rav of the Ashkenazi community there. He appealed to the King of Denmark, Frederick.

On 3 June 1752 the royal court gave judgment in favor of "Yaakov Herschel," the name by which Rav Yaakov was known in the official documents. The community council was blamed for its high-handed action and fined one hundred thalers. Rav Yaakov returned to Altona and took back his synagogue and printing press. He was forbidden to continue his campaign against Rav Yonasan, and in the end the king ordered him to stop.

His opponents did not rest. Intruders broke into his house on Friday night, 8 July 1755, and took his papers, which were passed to the Ober-Praesident, Von Kwalen. Half a year afterward Von Kwalen named a commission of three scholars, who studied the papers closely and found nothing to incriminate him.

The conflict spread far and wide and kept Jewry in a state of excitement for a long time. It was generally agreed that Rav Yaakov was moved by good motives to defend Judaism against what he believed was a grave danger, but that his zeal blinded him and his fiery nature got the better of him.

Teachings and seforim

There was never any disagreement about Rav Yaakov's great scholarship. He was recognized as an authority on Jewish law and had great influence in government circles. Thirty-one of his works were published in his lifetime and ten after his passing, while others remain in manuscript.

He printed a siddur with commentaries, known as Ammudei Shamayim, which aroused much opposition because it contained radical changes and because of his sharp criticism of powerful local money changers. His opponents kept up their denunciations even though the chief rabbi of the German communities had approved it. Despite the opposition, the siddur became an important reference work on tefillah.

He also wrote a diary, Megillas Sefer, which gives a clear picture of Jewish life in his day and is of great historical interest. He wrote many pamphlets in the controversies he was drawn into, including Edus BeYaakov, in which he set out his case against Rav Yonasan Eybeschutz, and others in his fight against the Sabbatean movement.

He had a critical eye and held that part of the Zohar is a later compilation, a conclusion he reached after a careful study of the book. He undertook that study in 1756, when the Synod of Constantinov asked his help in suppressing the Sabbateans, who relied heavily on the Zohar. He held that the Rambam could not have written the views found in the Guide for the Perplexed, and he opposed philosophy. He himself was strictly traditional and never deviated from custom, even where changed times might have allowed it.

He was friendly with Moses Mendelssohn and with a number of Christian scholars. Following the Rambam, he taught that Christianity and Islam serve a purpose in Hashem's plan: they carry to distant lands the awareness that the world has a single Master, who reveals Himself to man and who rewards and punishes.

Later years and passing

In 1772 the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin decreed that no burial could take place on the day of death. The Jews of his territory turned to Rav Yaakov, asking him to prove from the Gemara that leaving a body unburied longer was contrary to halachah, which regards delay in burial as degrading to the deceased. Rav Yaakov referred them to Moses Mendelssohn, who had great influence with the Christian authorities and wrote excellent German. Mendelssohn wrote the letter to the Duke, but privately told Rav Yaakov that, going by the Gemara, the Duke seemed to be right. Rav Yaakov answered in strong terms that it was absurd to suggest that a custom kept by the whole Jewish people was plainly mistaken, and he warned that such a claim would only strengthen the rumors of irreligiousness that Mendelssohn's associations had already aroused.

Rav Yaakov passed away in Altona on 30 Nissan 5536 (19 April 1776).

Legacy

Although Rav Yaakov did not approve of the Chassidic movement that arose in his lifetime, his seforim are highly regarded among chassidim. Moses Mendelssohn once addressed him as a talmid who thirsted for his words.

His son, Meshullam Solomon, was rabbi of the Hambro Synagogue in London and, from 1765 to 1780, laid claim to the title of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom.