Rav Shmuel Eliezer Eidels zt"l
הרב שמואל אליעזר בן יהודה איידליס זצ"ל
Kislev 5 , 5392
Rav Shmuel Eliezer Eidels zt"l
Rav Shmuel Eliezer HaLevi Eidels, the Maharsha, was born in Cracow in 1555. His father, Rav Yehuda, was an eminent Talmid Chochom who descended from Rav Yehuda HeChassid, as well as from Rav Akiva HaKohen Katz, the father-in-law of the Shela HaKodosh. His mother was the granddaughter of Rav Yehuda Loewe, the Maharal of Prague. Rebbetzin Eidel Lifschitz of Pozna, the wealthy widow of Rav Moshe Lifschitz, the Rav of Brisk, made a match between her daughter and the Maharsha. She also supported her other son-in-law, Rav Moshe Ashkenazi, mechaber of Zichron Moshe, with whom the Maharsha studied. In appreciation of his mother-in-law’s efforts, the Maharsha added the name Eidels to his own name, and from then on called himself Shmuel Eliezer Eidels. Rebbetzin Eidel passed away in 5368 at the age of one hundred. During his years as Rosh Yeshiva in Austroha, the Maharsha compiled his monumental Chiddushei Halochos and Chiddushei Aggodos on Shas.
Stories of Rav Shmuel Eliezer Eidels zt"l
The Maharsha served as the Rav of a small congregation. Above his station was the Rav of the entire locale. The Maharsha sat and taught in his Yeshiva. While others may have paid the local Rav their respects, the Maharsha, who saw more than met the eye, ignored him and just taught in his Yeshiva.
The local Rav was gracious and judged the Maharsha favorably, saying that perhaps he was so engrossed in teaching and studying that he did not wish to cause bitul Torah (time needlessly taken from Torah study). It happened that the local Rav came to visit the town where the Maharsha held his position as Rav. Still, the Maharsha failed to pay his respects and the Rav continued to judge him favorably.
When he came to the Maharsha’s shul, the Maharsha continued to teach and did not even deign to rise and greet him. Still, the Rav judged him favorably. That was until a good-looking young man entered. Immediately, the Maharsha stood up and gave honor and accord to this young man and spoke with him at length. Now the local Rav was furious. In his anger, he confronted the Maharsha and said, “I judged you favorably three times. You never paid your respects to me and it cannot be due to bitul Torah, for I see you spoke at length in the middle of your studies with this young man!”
“This young man will die two hours hence,” pronounced the Maharsha. The local Rav did not believe this. Instead, he followed the young man around and they wandered past a squire who was practicing hunting birds. As they passed him, the squire accidentally fired a shot and killed the young man!
When the local Rav came back to the Maharsha, the Maharsha further revealed that soon another dead man would be brought to him for burial! When this too occurred, the Maharsha explained to the perplexed Rav that the young man was a reincarnation of Achav, King of Yisrael.
“That is why I paid him honor and respect, and why I spoke with him at length. Just as Achav was killed, so too, this young man was destined to die. By following him around, and involving yourself in matters that are not yours, you held up the attribute of judgment, which lay in wait to take his soul. This other dead man was killed by the attribute of destruction that was waiting around and this was caused through your actions. You are responsible for this man’s death!”
The local Rav was horrified and begged the Maharsha to teach him a way to do teshuva. The Maharsha ordered him to leave his high post as Rav and become a simple coachman, and so he did.
The second tale about the Maharsha: In Ostrog, where the Maharsha presided as the Rav, the local cathedral and its bells lay directly in the path that the Chevra Kaddisha had to take in order to bury the Jews who had died. There was no other way to go. The church bells mysteriously caused whoever passed them to be seized by madness and renounce his faith and convert.
Before the Maharsha passed away, he ordered the Chevra Kaddisha to place his sefer that he had written on his coffin, and pass in front of the cathedral. The Chevra Kaddisha did so. As the funeral procession passed, the priests gathered and began to toll the bells. Those carrying the bier of the Maharsha ran away and watched from afar as the Maharsha sat up and began to leaf through the pages of his sefer. With each turn of a page, the cathedral and the priests in it began to sink deeper and deeper into the ground until only the steeple stuck out of the ground! Until this very day, there remains a sign at the spot where they sank and the Maharsha is buried not far from there.
The third tale about the Maharsha: When the Jews built the shul in Ostrog, they needed to raise a substantial amount of money to cover the costs. Therefore, the groundbreaking ceremony and the cornerstone laying were done with great pomp and a lavish ceremony. A great crowd was invited and there was much fanfare. They sold the honor of laying the cornerstone to a wealthy Jew for a bag of gold coins. The latter honored the Maharsha with the laying of the cornerstone. The Maharsha turned to him and asked what he could grant him in return. The rich man asked for a son who would be as great as the Maharsha.
“This is very difficult. Ask for something else,” said the Rav.
However, the rich man would not change his mind and he stubbornly insisted on this and nothing else.
“If so,” said the Maharsha, “I can grant it, but you will die when your wife conceives, and she will die in childbirth. I will adopt and raise the child for you. Only in this way can I fulfill your wish.”
The couple agreed – and so it was.
The Maharsha raised the orphan and he seemed ordinary in every respect; his greatness was hidden. Before the Maharsha passed away, he ordered the orphan whom he had raised to be his successor. The new Rav never participated in the funerals of any of the important personages in town and people ridiculed him for this strange behavior. The next time there was such a funeral he ordered his attendant to tell him. This time the Rav did attend. When he approached the body, he lifted up the shrouds and the horrified crowd saw how the body was taken away by angels of destruction before their very eyes.
“You see?” the Rav exclaimed. “These are your important citizens! How do you expect me to honor them?!”
From that day on, the people recognized his greatness as the Maharsha’s successor.
(Koch’vei Ohr)
The Chazon Ish writes: The last generation did something incorrect when they stopped studying the sefer of the Maharsha. He left Klal Yisrael a great gift to give zechus (merit) to the generations that followed him, to accustom those who study to toil in Torah. The Gaon, Rav Akiva Eiger, studied this entire sefer and left nothing out. From the day that the generation stopped studying the Maharsha they lost true understanding of peshat of the entire simple, straightforward meaning of the text; instead they have accustomed themselves to kalus ha’iyun – in-depth analysis that is light-headed and a façade. (Kovetz Igros, Letter#1)
Divrei Torah of Rav Shmuel Eliezer Eidels zt"l
holy things come in groups of seven
The Maharsha, in his commentary (Chiddushei Aggodos ibid [Archin 13b] s.v. Kinor) explains how in this world we find that all holy things come in groups of seven corresponding to the seven days of Creation. Because the world was created in seven days, all holy things come in sets of seven and this is why there were seven strings on the harp of the Bais HaMikdosh. Similarly, in the sefer Ohev Yisrael, Parshas Behaalosecha (s.v. kach es haLevi’im), he also touches upon this and explains it based on Kabbola.
holy things come in groups of seven
The Maharsha, in his commentary (Chiddushei Aggodos ibid [Archin 13b] s.v. Kinor) explains how in this world we find that all holy things come in groups of seven corresponding to the seven days of Creation. Because the world was created in seven days, all holy things come in sets of seven and this is why there were seven strings on the harp of the Bais HaMikdosh. Similarly, in the sefer Ohev Yisrael, Parshas Behaalosecha (s.v. kach es haLevi’im), he also touches upon this and explains it based on Kabbola.