Continuity of Jewish PresenceThe Gra

Rabbi Elijah ben (son of) Shlomo Zalman, is often referred to as the "Vilna Gaon" ("Genius from Vilna"), or simply "the Gra," an acronym of "Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu." He was born in 1720 in Lithuania, and from an early age showed tremendous promise as a Torah scholar. He had committed Torah to memory, and was fully versed in the Talmud as well. By the age of twenty, leading rabbis were sending him their most difficult questions for him to answer and elucidate.

The Gaon wrote voluminously, covering almost every Jewish text published. He was extraordinarily modest about his abilities, and despite his acknowledged authority, never accepted a formal rabbinic position in the community. He also strongly believed in embracing secular studies, believing knowledge in all fields enhanced the understanding of religious texts, and wrote extensively on mathematics and grammar.

The Gaon exhorted his followers to move to Israel. He himself attempted a trip, but for unknown reasons, never made it farther than Germany. The Gaon died in 1797, and between 1800 and 1812, groups of his students and their families, numbering over 500, made aliyah. Their organization was called "Hazon Zion"—a vision of Zion—whose tenets were reestablishing Jerusalem as a Torah center, gathering the exiles, and cultivating the existing settlements in Israel. The settlers of Hazon Zion were part of the "Yishuv HaYashan" (literally: The Old Settlement), the term referring the Jewish community in Israel from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple until the first aliyah in 1881.

The Perushim, as they were called (from the Hebrew word to separate, because they believed in separating themselves from the world and devoting their lives to Torah study), began the settlement of modern Israel. Their journey was long and difficult. At first, the Perushim lived in Safed, in northern Israel, because the Ottomans restricted Ashkenazi Jews from moving to Jerusalem. The community flourished in Safed, religiously and agriculturally. However, following earthquakes and an outbreak of the plague, in addition to persecution by the Ottoman and Druze communities, the Perushim moved to Jerusalem. They succeeded in having the previously enforced ban on Ashkenazi Jews lifted, and their arrival represented Jerusalem's first Ashkenazi presence in centuries; there had been a group of Sephardi Jews in Jerusalem for about one hundred years.

The Perushim set up centers for Torah study, rebuilt the Hurva synagogue, and founded the neighborhood of Mea Shearim, today an ultra-orthodox enclave in Jerusalem. The leader of the Jerusalem community met with Moses Montefiore, a high-ranking British Jew, to discuss funding agricultural endeavors near Jerusalem. This resulted in the communities of Nachalat Shiva and Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first communities established outside the walls of Jerusalem.

The Vilna Gaon was one of the most influential and prolific Torah scholars. And though he never realized his dream of living in the Holy Land, the Perushim were able to do what he wasn't—return to the Holy Land, spread his teachings, and establish a vibrant Jewish presence there, full of Torah study and religious observance.