Elijah Loans

Elijah ben Moses Ashkenazi Loans also known as Elijah Baal Shem of Worms (1555 – July 1636) was a German rabbi and Kabbalist.

He was born in Frankfurt-am-Main. He belonged to the family of Rashi, on his mother's side was the grandson of Johanan Luria and a grandson of Josel of Rosheim

After studying in his native city under the direction of Jacob Ginzburg and Akiba Frankfort, Loans went to Kraków, where he attended the lectures of Rabbi Menahem Mendel Avigdors. He also studied in the Yeshivah of the Maharal. While there he prepared for publication the "Darke Mosheh" of Moses Isserles. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Loans was called to the rabbinate of Fulda, which he left in 1612, occupying successively the rabbinates of Hanau, Friedberg (1620), and Worms (1630), in which last-named city he remained until his death.

There was a third Eliyahu baal shem who gets confused with this Eliyahu Baal Shem, who lived in Worms, Krakow, Chelm and Prague. Not to be confused with Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm. He was born to Rabbi Yosef Yutzpa, an exiled Spanish Jew who moved to Kracow.[1] He was a hidden tzaddik and never got married until the age of 80. He had a son 2 years later which he named after the prophet Eliyahu, after he was told by the latter that he would illuminate the world. He died at the age of 95.[2] Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem ben Yosef Yutzpa held a Yeshivah in Worms, which moved to Chelm, then to Prague.[3] He was forced to leave Wormz on the account of Rabbi Pinchas Zelig of Speyer who was anti the publication of the Zohar in 1558 and its dissemination. [4]. He ended up in Chelm in Poland, then Prague in bohemia. Unlike loanz who is buried in Worms. Further proof that he is not loanz, is that he attended the funeral of the grandchild of the Maharal in Prague at the age of 108[5]. He therfore could not possibly be in Worms. His primary students were Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem [6] and Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller [7]. He didn't leave any manusripts, although his father left him with works on Kabbalah from his Rabbi in Spain, Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabbai. According to one tradition Eliyahu ben Yosef Yutzpa lived till the age of 118.[8]

Loans was a diligent student of Kabbalah, and for this reason was surnamed "Ba'al Shem." He was also accomplished in music and calligraphy, and various legends circulated regarding his personality. He was the author of the following works: Rinnat Dodim (Basel, 1600), a commentary on Song of Songs; Miklol Yofi (Amsterdam, 1695), a commentary on Ecclesiastes; Wikkuaḥ Yayin 'im ha-Mayim (Amsterdam, 1757), a poem with a commentary; Ma'agle Ẓedeḳ (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1832), a commentary on Baḥya's "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot"; Ẓofnat Pa'aneaḥ (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1830), a commentary on the "Tiḳḳune Zohar"; a commentary on Genesis Rabbah (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 149); and Adderet Eliyahu (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1829), a commentary on the Zohar.

Loans also edited the "'Ammude Shelomoh" of Solomon Luria on the "Semag" (Basel, 1599), and the "Sha'are Dura" of Isaac ben Meïr of Dueren, to which he wrote a preface (Neubauer, "Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library" No. 1600).