- Eliezer Gordon
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841–1910) also known as "Reb Laizer Telzer", served as the Rabbi and
Rosh Yeshiva ofTelz ,Lithuania .Early years
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon was born in 1841 in the Lithuanian village of
Chernian , near Vilna. His father,Avrohom Shmuel Gordon , was a student of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. As a youngster, he studied in the ZaretzaYeshiva in Vilna. From there, he transferred to the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter inKovno . Among the yeshiva's outstanding students at the time were Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer, RabbiSimcha Zissel Ziv , Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, Rabbi Yerucham Perlman and RabbiJacob Joseph .Rabbi Salanter realized that Rabbi Gordon had great potential and appointed him as a
maggid shiur in the yeshiva at a young age. After his father-in-law's death, Rabbi Gordon succeeded the latter as Rabbi of Kovno — but he only stayed for three months. On Tuesday, 24 March (6th Nissan) 1874, Rabbi Gordon took over the position ofChief Rabbi at Kelm, where he remained for nine years and founded a Yeshiva. From there, he headed toSlabodka , where he served as Rabbi for about six months. He finally relocated to Telz in 1884, to serve as Rabbi.Telz
In 1875, Rabbis
Meir Atlas ,Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim andShlomo Zalman Abel had founded theTelz Yeshiva . As Rabbi of the town, Rabbi Gordon was also appointed head of the fledgling institution. He instituted numerous innovative ideas in the yeshiva which have since become accepted as standard practice in many contemporary yeshivas.#Hitherto, yeshivas grouped all their students into one general
shiur (class). Rabbi Gordon, however, divided the yeshiva into different shiurim commensurate with a student's age and intellectual level.
#Rabbi Gordon also promoted a new approach to curriculum in the yeshiva, based primarily on logic and the understanding of theTalmud . While other yeshivas primarily analyzed the later commentaries on the Talmud, such as thePnei Yehoshua ,Maharsha and Maharam Schiff, Rabbi Gordon directed students to probe the earlier works of theRishonim , such asRamban ,Rashba andRitva . Nonetheless, he also included the works of certain "Acharonim" into the curriculum, such as the "Ketzos Hachoshen", "Nesivos Hamishpat" and RabbiAkiva Eiger 's works.
#A student of RabbiYisroel Salanter , Rabbi Gordon advocated the study of ethics (mussar ) in the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon appointed a special teacher of ethics (mashgiach) to supervise the students spiritual development and to shape their characters according to the approach of Rabbi Salanter. The yeshiva's first mussar mashgiach was Rabbi Ben Zion Kranitz, a student of Rabbi Simcha Zissel of Kelm. Rabbi Kranitz was very mild mannered, and did not force his students to accept the mussar approach. In 1897, however, Rabbi Gordon engaged a new mussar mashgiach - the dynamic RabbiLeib Chasman , who instituted a very strict mussar regime in the yeshiva. Many of the students opposed this approach, which caused dissent among the student body.Rabbi Gordon also felt that important to the success of the yeshiva was employing the highest standard of teachers. Under Rabbi Gordon's leadership, the yeshiva hired Rabbi
Shimon Shkop , Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch and RabbiChaim Rabinowitz ("Reb Chaim Telzer"). Rabbi Gordon tried, unsuccessfully to hire Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Rabinowitz ("Reb Itzele Ponovezher") to teach at the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon himself delivered the highest-level shiur.Death
In 1908, a fire broke out in Telz, destroying all of the wooden homes in the town, including the yeshiva. In 1910, Rabbi Gordon, who was nearly 70, traveled to Berlin and London along with his wife and younger friend Rabbi Aharon Walkin - the "Teshuvos Zekan Aharon" of
Pinsk - to raise funds for rebuilding the homes and the yeshiva. It was winter, and Rabbi Gordon's doctors warned him that England's weather was dangerous to his health, especially since he had suffered a heart attack a few years earlier. Nonetheless, Rabbi Gordon could not be deterred.While in London, Rabbi Gordon suffered a fatal heart attack. His funeral attracted one of the largest crowds London had ever seen; 50,000 mourners at its height.
Dayan Shmuel Yitzchok Hillman ofGlasgow and several leading European Rabbis (who where in London at the time) such as RabbiMoshe Mordechai Epstein of Slabodka, Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (theRidvaz ) ofSlutzk and Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the "Aderet") delivered tearful eulogies in Yiddish. Eulogies were also delivered in English by DayanMoses Hyamson of the LondonBeth Din and DrMoses Gaster ,Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese community. Rabbi Gordon was buried in the Edmonton Federation Cemetery.
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