There is a similar tradition relating to the Vilna Gaon ( 1720 – 1797 ).

Rabbi Chaim Volozhin ( Lithuania 1749 – 1821 ) reports in an introduction to Siphra Dzeniouta ( 1818 ) that he once presented to his teacher, the Vilna Gaon, ten different versions of a certain passage in the Sefer Yetzira and asked the Gaon to determine the correct text.

As far as we know, the Vilna Gaon is the only Rabbi who has actually claimed that he tried to create a Golem ; all such stories about other rabbis were told after their time.

The 18th-century Vilna Gaon, for instance, while the head of Rabbinic opposition to the new Jewish mystical movement that itself became known as " Hasidism ", was renowned for his righteous life.

His scholarship became popularly honored with the formal title of " Genius ", while amongst the Hasidic movement's leadership, despite his fierce opposition, he was respecfully referred to as " The Gaon, the Hasid from Vilna ".

It ignored the aliya of the Ramban and the students of the Vilna Gaon and the Ba ' al Shem Tov, and the of Jews who lived in the ' Old Yishuv '.

Elaborating on this theme are numerous early and late Jewish scholars, including the Ramban, Isaac Abrabanel, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Bachya, the Vilna Gaon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Ramchal, Aryeh Kaplan, and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis.

The family traced its lineage back to the legendary Gaon of Vilna.

Ginzberg emulated the Vilna Gaon ’ s intermingling of ‘ academic knowledge ’ in Torah studies under the label ‘ historical Judaism ’.

In his book Students, Scholars and Saints, Ginzberg quotes the Vilna Gaon instructing, “ Do not regard the views of the Shulchan Aruch as binding if you think that they are not in agreement with those of the Talmud .”

** The Vilna Gaon ( Shenot Eliyahu on parts of the Mishnah, and glosses Eliyaho Rabba, Chidushei HaGra, Meoros HaGra )

* 1797 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi ( b. 1720 )

Two authoritative versions of the Ashkenazi siddur were those of Shabbetai Sofer in the 16th century and Seligman Baer in the 19th century ; siddurim have also been published reflecting the views of Jacob Emden and the Vilna Gaon.

* Siddur HaGra ( reflecting views of the Vilna Gaon )

* Siddur Aliyos Eliyahu ( Popular among followers of the Vilna Gaon who live in Israel and abroad ) ( Hebrew )

Most editions of the Talmud include brief marginal notes by Akiva Eger under the name Gilyonot ha-Shas, and textual notes by Joel Sirkes and the Vilna Gaon ( see Textual emendations below ), on the page together with the text.

Other styles of learning such as that of the school of Elijah b. Solomon, the Vilna Gaon, became popular.

In the Ashkenazi community of Eastern Europe, later religious authorities including the Vilna Gaon ( d. 1797 ) and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi ( d. 1812 ) ( The Baal HaTanya ) believed in the authenticity of the Zohar.

The Vilna Gaon authored a commentary on the Zohar.

* August 8 – Seventy disciples of Vilna Gaon arrive in Palestine.

* October 9 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi ( b. 1720 )

* April 23 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi ( d. 1797 )

The Vilna Gaon relates the Four Cups to four worlds: this world, the Messianic age, the world at the revival of the dead, and the world to come.

Vyshensky addressed to " the Christians of Little Russia, brotherhoods of Lvov and Vilna " and Kopystensky wrote " Little Russia, or Kiev and Lithuania ".

As is written in the book Iggrot HaTanya in the name of the Gaon of Vilna who does not believe in the Kabbalah of the Ari in its entirety that it is wholly from the mouth of Elijah z " l, only a small portion is from the mouth of Elijah z " l, and the rest is from his great knowledge and it is not required to believe it ... and thus wrote Rabbi Chaim Volozhin in the foreword to his book ... and if so, why all this awe that we should put aside the words of all the Poskim and all of the laws because of the opinion of the Ari z " l?

It seems that the Vilna Gaon, who wrote extensive Kabbalistic works, followed the Lurianic system, but diverged from Luria when he felt the Zohar lent itself to another approach.

He also wrote: Tzvi L ' Tzadik ( צבי לצדיק ) glosses on the Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh De ' ah, published in the new Vilna edition of that work ; the Sefer ha-Berit commentary on the Pentateuch ; the Sefer Yetzi ' at Mitzrayim commentary on the Passover Pesach Haggadah ; Chiddushim on several Talmudical treatises ; etc.

B. Nathansohn, correspondent of the Warsaw-based Jewish newspaper Hamelitz visited Romania in the summer of 1878 and wrote, " When a Jew enters a Yiddish theatre in Bucharest he is thunderstruck hearing the Yiddish language in all its splendor and radiance ", and called upon Goldfaden to create similar theatres in Warsaw, Lublin, Vilna, Berdichev, and Balta.

He was imprisoned in Vilna ( modern Vilnius ), where he wrote one of his most notable works-the Letter from Beneath the Gallows ( Pismo z-pad szybienicy ), a passionate credo for his compatriots.

Ernest Joselovitz wrote a play about the Mogulesko troupe, Vilna's Got a Golem, set in Vilna, Lithuania, during the pogroms of 1899.

In Moscow, he wrote a chronicle of his experiences in the Vilna ghetto ( Fun vilner geto ) and began Geheymshtot (" Secret City "), an epic poem about Jews hiding in the sewers of Vilna.

For example in the book " Mitoch Hatorah Hagoelet " he wrote that the first Rebbe of Chabad, the author of the Tanya, was a " great man " but the Vilna Gaon was even greater.

According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, this book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library.

There is also an edition by Yosef Qafiḥ of the Mishnah together with the commentary of Maimonides, which compares the base text used by Maimonides with the Napoli and Vilna editions and other sources.

A wealth of later works include commentary and exposition by such halachic authorities as the Ketzoth ha-Choshen and Avnei Millu ' im, Netivoth ha-Mishpat, the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau ( Dagul Mervavah ), Rabbis Akiva Eger, Moses Sofer, and Chaim Joseph David Azulai ( Birkei Yosef ) whose works are widely recognized and cited extensively in later halachic literature.

The issue is the subject of forewords to the main texts of Lithuanian Kabbalah: the introduction, by Rabbi Ḥayyim of Volozhin, to the Vilna Gaon's commentary to the Sifra di-Tsniuta and Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Chaver's Pitchei Shearim.

George Forster, who had been on Cook ’ s second voyage to the Pacific and had been with him when he landed on Norfolk Island, was at the time professor of natural history at the University of Vilna ( or Vilnius ) in Polish Lithuania: Forster discussed the proposed Botany Bay colony in an article written in November 1786, “ Neuholland, und die brittische Colonie in Botany Bay ”.

It is known, on the other hand, that during Karo's lifetime the kabalists believed his Maggid to be actually existent ( compare Vital-Calabrese, Sefer ha-Gilgulim, pp. 119, 142, Vilna, 1885 ).

An accusation was made on May 8, 1798 by Hirsh ben David of Vilna accused him of trying to assist the French Revolution, by sending money to Napoleon and the Sultan.

The following year ( 1896 ) he participated in the Vilna Conference, where Rabbis and community leaders discussed issues such as: genuine Jewish education ; permission for Jewish children not to attend public school on Shabbat ; the creation of a united Jewish organization for the purpose of strengthening Judaism.

When Hasidism appeared in Vilna, the Vilna Gaon enacted the first major excommunication against Hasidism, which was issued on April 11, 1772.

Supporting and elaborating on this theme are numerous early and late Jewish scholars, including the Ramban, Isaac Abrabanel, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Bachya, the Vilna Gaon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Ramchal, Aryeh Kaplan and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis.

A key point of opposition was that the Vilna Gaon maintained that greatness in Torah and observance must come through natural human efforts at Torah study without relying on any external " miracles " and " wonders ", whereas the Ba ' al Shem Tov was more focused on bringing encouragement and raising the morale of the Jewish people, especially following the Chmelnitzki pogroms ( 1648 – 1654 ) and the aftermath of disillusionment in the Jewish masses following the millennial excitement heightened by the failed messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank.

* Map of the spread of Hasidism from 1730 and 1760-75, with its encroachment on the centre of Rabbinic opposition in Vilna

When Malbim passed through Vilna in 1879 the community there would have appointed him rabbi in place of Isaac Elijah Landau, but the governor of Vilna opposed the election on the ground that he could not sanction the appointment of a rabbi who had been expelled from Moghilef as a political criminal.

The Vilna Gaon was modest ; he declined to accept the office of rabbi, though it was often offered to him on the most flattering terms.

File: Vilna Governorate COA. gif | The Pahonia on the coat of arms of the Vilna Governorate of the Russian empire

Rabbi Epstein was born in the town of Bakst, in the Vilna district of Lithuania, on the 20th of Adar, 5626 ( 1866 ), to Rabbi Tzvi Chaim and Baila Chana Epstein.

During his concert in Tchaikovsky Hall on June 14-which was broadcast across the entire country-Robeson publicly paid tribute to Feffer and the late Mikhoels, singing the Vilna Partisan song " Zog Nit Keynmol " in both Russian and Yiddish.

Antanas Merkys (; born on 1 February 1887 in Bajorai, near Skapiškis, Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire ; died on 5 March 1955 in Vladimir Oblast, Soviet Union ) was the last Prime Minister of independent Lithuania, serving from November 1939 to June 1940.