Rav Yaakov Yukel Ettlinger

Early years

Rav Yaakov Yukel Ettlinger zt"l, known as the Aruch LaNer after his best-known sefer, was born on 17 March 1798 in Karlsruhe, Baden. His father, Rav Aharon Meir, was Rosh Yeshiva of the local mesivta and Klausrabbiner (Rav of a small shul) in Karlsruhe, a recognized talmid chacham steeped in Kabbalah. He was also a grandson of the Shaagas Aryeh.

Rav Yaakov began his learning with his father. He then learned under the Rav of Karlsruhe, Rav Asher Wallerstein, son of the Shaagas Aryeh and Chief Rav of the entire Grand Duchy of Baden, and remained his talmid until the age of eighteen.

He completed his Torah education in the yeshiva of Rav Avraham Bing in Würzburg, one of the great Torah centers of Germany. While there he also attended the University of Würzburg, where he mainly studied philosophy, and he was among the first German rabbanim with an academic background, though he never took a formal degree. He remained fervently Orthodox throughout.

Torah and leadership

In the 1820s he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of the beis medrash in Mannheim, where he served as district Rav of Ladenburg and chief prebendary. Rav Shimshon Refoel Hirsch learned with him there and received semichah from him after barely a year. In the mid-1830s he succeeded Rav Akiva Yisroel Wertheimer as Rav and Rosh Yeshiva of Altona, a position he held until his passing. As Ashkenazi Chief Rav he served Holstein and Schleswig, and until 1864 Denmark as well, and he became one of the leading voices of German Orthodoxy.

Many young men preparing for the rabbinate learned in his yeshiva, and a good number of them went on to guide Orthodox communities. Rav Azriel Hildesheimer was his talmid in Altona. Rav Yaakov also had five sons-in-law who became prominent Orthodox rabbanim: Rav Yosef Isaacsohn of Rotterdam, Rav Shlomo Cohn of Schwerin, Rav Yisroel Meir Freimann of Ostrowo, Rav Moshe Leib Bamberger of Kissingen and Rav Mordechai Horovitz of Frankfurt.

Rav Yaakov was the final German rav to sit as a civil judge. In 1863 the Danish government, which ruled Altona at the time, removed this authority from the Rav of Altona, contrary to his wishes. Those who opposed him still recognized how pure his character was and how sincere his convictions were.

Rav Yaakov stood among the fiercest opponents of early Reform. In 1844 he led a protest, signed by 173 rabbanim, against the Brunswick Conference. The following year he established the first Orthodox periodical, Der treue Zionswächter, which carried a Hebrew supplement called Shomer Tziyon HaNe'eman, under the editorship of S. J. Enoch. His firmness in defending tradition showed in small moments too. Abraham Geiger, who met him as a student in 1829, described how Rav Yaakov sharply rebuked a teacher for speaking ill of the Shevatim at a school examination.

Rav Yaakov viewed Kabbalah favorably. In the introduction to his first sefer, Bikurei Yaakov, he explains why he gave it that name: the title equals Yaakov and Rachel in gematria, and they are mystically represented in the halachos of Sukkah, the topic of the sefer. A derashah of his also urged that a body be buried quickly, since evil spirits hold power over it for as long as it remains unburied.

His responsa dealt with many difficult halachic questions, and he often resolved them with original approaches. Rav Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer was gathering support for a movement to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash and bring korbanos, and Rav Yaakov firmly opposed it. One of his arguments was that most korbanos would be invalid anyway. A korban must be brought with the intention of producing reiach (a pleasing scent), yet the Torah says that in the time of exile Hashem will not smell the scent of the offerings, which leaves any such intention hollow.

In the controversy over machine-made matzos, he permitted their use on Pesach. He wrote that German rabbanim keep far away from novelties in Torah and mitzvos, but that when experts and students of nature make discoveries, those may be accepted as an aid to keeping the mitzvos. Even so, he instituted that the edges of the matzos be trimmed, so that they would look round like traditional matzos. In 1859 he was asked about a man who claimed to be Eliyahu HaNavi and, saying he acted on Divine command, defiled a married woman. The question was whether she had become forbidden to her husband. Rav Yaakov began by remarking how hard it was to find grounds to permit her, but he concluded that because she believed she was following Divine orders, she was to be regarded as someone who had been forced and had no choice.

Teachings and seforim

His Aruch LaNer, novellae on many masechtos of the Gemara, is one of the standard texts in yeshivos around the world, and it is cited widely by Rav Elchonon Wasserman, Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz and Rav Reuven Grozovsky. Rav Yaakov's other seforim include Bikurei Yaakov, on the laws of Sukkah, Binyan Tzion, responsa, Minchas Ani, homilies, and Minchah Aruchah, sermons, articles and pamphlets.

Later years and passing

Rav Yaakov passed away in Altona, Prussia, on 25 Kislev 5632 (7 December 1871). In his will he asked that he not be called a tzaddik, and that his tombstone carry only the titles of his works and the number of years he had served as Rav of Altona. He also asked that the four death penalties of beis din, stoning, burning, decapitation and strangulation, be carried out symbolically on his body.