Elijah Schik (1795 – September 2, 1876) also known as Reb Alinkah or the Ayn Eliyah was a 19th-century Misngadic

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n rabbi.

Biography

Reb Alinkah was born in the town of

Vasilishki Vasilishki (; ; ; ; ) is an agrotown in Shchuchyn District, Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vasilishki selsoviet. History Within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vasilishki was part of Vilnius Voivodeship. In 170 ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

around 1795. His father R. Benjamin was a prominent rabbi and a descendant of R. Hanoch Heinich Schick of

Shklov Shklow is a town in Mogilev Region, Belarus, located north of Mogilev on the Dnieper River. It serves as the administrative center of Shklow District. It has a railway station on the line between Orsha and Mogilev. In 2009, its population was ...

. The Hungarian rabbi R. Moshe Schick was a cousin of Reb Alinkah. Reb Alinkah was orphaned at only three months old after his father was killed in a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

. He was a pupil of Benjamin, chief rabbi of Grodno. As rabbi he officiated in

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

, where he ultimately became engrossed in a controversy with the city's

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

rabbi, R. Benjamin of Lida in 1854, later relocating to

Kobrin Kobryn or Kobrin is a town in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Kobryn District. It is located in the southwestern corner of Belarus, where the Mukhavets river and Dnieper–Bug Canal meet. The town lies about e ...

. On the holy days of Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur he acted as cantor. He was one of the preachers whose sermons always attracted large audiences. Schick was the author of "'Ayn Eliyahu," a commentary on Jacob Ḥabib's "'En Ya'aḳob," published with the Vina edition of that work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schik, Elijah 1795 births 1876 deaths 19th-century Lithuanian rabbis People from Vilnius Voivodeship