TzadikimRabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher, known as the "Gradeitzer" (11 Av 1761, 1796 - 24 Tishrei 1875, 1874) was a rabbi, Kabbalist, one of the forerunners of Zionism
Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher, known as the "Gradeitzer" (11 Av 1761, 1796 - 24 Tishrei 1875, 1874) was a rabbi, Kabbalist, one of the forerunners of Zionism, and one of the first readers of agricultural settlement in Israel in the 19th century.
Born in Burk in the Poznan region of Silesia to his parents Rabbi Shlomo and Tzipora Gutmacher. He studied at various yeshivas in Silesia, especially in the city of Ravic. At the age of 19, he began studying at the yeshiva of Rabbi Akiva Eiger in Poznań. Even in his youth he wrote for himself innovations and Pilpulim and so he continued in his later years. Following his rabbi, he also began to engage in the occult and created for himself a special conception of the world and man, the people of Israel and the Torah, the Land of Israel and redemption. Influenced by the books of Kabbalah, he also approached the Hasidic movement and was influenced by its literature.
In 1822 he was elected rabbi of Plashan and established a large yeshiva there. His admiration reached its peak in the city of his second rabbinate, Gradice, located in Saxony , near the Polish border to which he moved in 1839. In Gradice people began to flock to him for advice, blessings and cure, and he became a unique kind of Hasidic rebbe in Germany.
When he received from Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalisher, a friend of Rabbi Akiva Eiger's seminary, the manuscript of his book Demanding Zion containing his views on redemption and the settlement of Eretz Yisrael, he found in it a friend of his views, while Rabbi Kalisher saw him as a leader and great Torah scholar. He expressed Rabbi Kalisher's appreciation of Rabbi Gutmacher in one of his letters:
The divine holy genius Muharram Gutmacher, who weighed his soul against the thousands of souls of the children of Israel, both in the Torah, in Hasidism, and in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and he is an exemplary man.
Together with Rabbi Kalisher, he issued a call for the settlement of Eretz Israel and established the Eretz Yisrael Society. At the same time, he bought a courtyard in Jerusalem, through Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hirchenson (Rabbi Chaim's father), in which he established a beit midrash called "Shanot Eliyahu" and next to it a yeshiva and the "Sukkah Shalom and Maor Yaakov" and kept them until his last day. At that meeting, special attention was paid to the study of Kabbalah.
Died in Graditz in 1874. Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Beit She'an Valley is named after him.
He left behind a collection of amulets as well as an archive that are in the National Library.
He based his Kabbalistic method on the principle that the Jew, the Torah, and the deity constitute a triangular object, whose entire power in the Land of Israel is the center of the world. Following Israel's sin, they were cast into exile and the bone separated from its foundations. As soon as the elements unite again, redemption will come. The instigation of redemption depends on the combination of the only soul from Israel and on the increase in the number of those who deserve redemption.
Contrary to the view that the redemption of Israel will come miraculously without human involvement, Rabbi Gutmacher emphasized the duty of the people of Israel to act for their redemption in the natural way. This view, which was innovative in relation to what was accepted among the rabbis of his time, is more prominent in the context of his practice of Kabbalah. For example, Rabbi Kalisher wrote:
In our many iniquities many err in thinking that they will sit in the amusement company, each as his way in their house, and the gates of mercy will suddenly open and become masterpieces in heaven and in earth.
- From Sefer Shivat Zion by Rabbi Kalisher
As is customary and a man of salvation, famous and well-known for his virtue, in our Rabbi's introduction to his son R. Zvi son of Rabbi Eliyahu "Ken Meforeshet" on the Tractate Kinim, our Rabbi writes that his son left something for generations, who needed some salvation to study in a number of branches with the rabbi. His son is an "Ken Meforeshet," and he will stand and pray in the form of prayer, and he will have salvation, and if it does not help, he will do so for up to three days.
May the merit of the tzadik Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher protect us all. Amen
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