Rabbi Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin (also known as Hart Lyon and Hirshel Löbel; 1721 – 26 August 1800) was Chief Rabbi of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, and

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bomb ...

and

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

, known as a scholarly Talmudist. Hirschel Levin

Life

He was born in

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian ...

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

to Aryeh Löb and Miriam Lowenstam. His father was rabbi at

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and his mother was daughter of Rabbi Chacham Zvi Ashkenazi. He was a descendant of Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm. His glosses on the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

appear in the Vilna edition under the name of Rabbi Tsvi Hersh Berlin. His son, Rabbi

Solomon Hirschell Rabbi Solomon Hirschell (12 February 1762, London – 31 October 1842, London) was the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1802–42. He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism in Britain by excommunicating ...

was also Chief Rabbi of the British German and Polish Jewish community, and the first of the British empire. His other son, Saul Berlin, was a Talmudist and notorious forger of the Besamim Rosh.Adele Berlin, Maxine Grossman – The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion 2011 – Page 123 "BERLIN, SHA'UL BEN TSEVI HIRSCH (1740–1794), German rabbi and Haskalah sympathizer. Son of the chief rabbi of Berlin, Hirschel Levin, he was ordained rabbi at the age of twenty by several distinguished authorities."

References

External links

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The British Chief Rabbinate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Hirschel Chief rabbis of the United Kingdom 18th-century German rabbis Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom British people of Czech-Jewish descent British people of Polish-Jewish descent 18th-century English rabbis 1721 births 1800 deaths People from Rzeszów Polish emigrants to Germany Rabbis from London