Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter

Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter
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Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter
Gerrer Rebbe
Term	1870 – 11 January 1905
Full name	Yehuda (Arye) Leib Alter
Main work	שפת אמת Sfas Emes
Born	15 April, 1847
	Warsaw
Died	11 January, 1905
	Ger
Buried	Ger
Dynasty	Ger
Predecessor	Chanoch Heynekh of Aleksander
Successor	Avrohom Mordechai Alter
Father	Avrohom Mordechai Alter
Mother	Ester Landsztajn
Wife1	Yocheved Rivka Kaminer
Issue1	Avrohom Mordechai Alter Yitschok Myer Alter Moshe Betsalel Alter Chanokh Chayim Alter Feyge Lewin Yisroel Alter Nechemya Alter Menachem Mendl Alter Noach Alter Esther Biderman
Wife 2	Reyzl Halberstam

Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter (1847 - 1905), also known by the title of his Torah books as the Sfas Emes (שפת אמת), was born in Warsaw, Poland and died in Góra Kalwaria, Poland. He was a Hasidic rabbi, who succeeded his grandfather, Chidushei HaRim as the rabbi (ABD) of Ger and succeeded the Rebbe Reb Heynekh of Alexander, as rebbe of the Gerrer chasidim.

1 Life and times
2 Leading Torah scholar
- 2.1 His sayings
3 Bibliography
4 Rebbes of Ger
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Life and times

Early years

He was born in 1847 and named Yehuda Leib; he was known to family and friends as Leybl. His father, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, died when Yehuda Leib was only eight years old, and his mother died before that. Orphaned of both parents, he was brought up by his grandparents, Rabbi Yitschok Myer Alter and his wife. When he was about ten years old, his grandfather took him to visit the Kotsker Rebbe, an event which left a lifelong impression on him.

He married Yocheved Rivka, daughter of Reb Yidl (Yehuda) Kaminer. In order not to have the same name as his father-in-law, his own name was changed to Yehuda Arye Leib. He is said to have been attached to the name Yehuda, and was upset at not being able to use it as his name any longer.

Leadership

When his grandfather, the Chidushei haRim, died in 1866, many of the chasidim sought to bestow the mantle of leadership on eighteen-year-old Yehuda Arye Leib. He refused that position, and leadership of the chasidim went to Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin of Aleksander. After the death of the latter in 1870 the chasidim succeeded in gaining Yehuda Arye Leib's assent to become their leader as rebbe.^[1]

During the Russo-Japanese War many of his young followers were drafted into the Russian Army and sent to the battlefields in Manchuria. Alter was very worried over these devotees and would constantly write to them. It began to be detrimental to his health. On 11 January 1905 (5 Shevat 5665) he died at the age of 57.

Report of Funeral

"When news of the Admor's petiroh spread, so many people rushed to Ger yesterday morning that although the railway dispatched extra trains there was hardly any space in the cars and thousands of people were still left without means to travel... One (tram)car with seating for 44 people held over 200, not even leaving any standing room, and in another car some people fainted as a result of the overcrowded conditions... When the time for tefillas Mincha arrived, all of the funeral goers, 20,000 in number, stood in a field and davened Minchah together... The brief words spoken by the Rav of Sochatshov made a powerful impression." ^[2]

Succession

He was succeeded as Gerrer Rebbe by his son Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter.

Following the Holocaust, the chasidus of Ger has become a large movement in the State of Israel and other countries.

Leading Torah scholar

Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib was one of the greatest Torah scholars of his generation, teaching students such as Rabbi Nachman Shlomo Greenspan and many others. His output was prodigious, and his works (all entitled Sfas Emes) deal with the legalistic Talmud, the ethics of Midrash, and mysticism of the Zohar.

His Torah homilies as delivered to his Hasidim, and arranged according to the weekly parashah and the festivals, were the first to be published posthumously under the name Sfas Emes. The title was taken from the closing words of the final piece he wrote (Sfas Emes, Vayechi 5665). His chiddushim (original Torah thoughts) on many Talmudic tractates, and on Yoreh De'ah, have been published under the same name.

The Sochatchover Rav, Rabbi Avrohom Bornsztain (known as the Avnei Nezer), a leading Torah scholar and posek in his own right, is said to have maintained two bookcases, one for Rishonim (earlier commentators) and another for Acharonim (later commentators). The volumes of the Sfas Emes, written in the late 1800s, were to be found in his bookcase containing the Rishonim. To study some portions of the Talmud without the Sfas Emes is unthinkable to the modern day scholar^[3]. The Rebbe of Tzaltz wrote a super commentary to the Sfas Emes called the Sfas Bitz.

His sayings

One of the greatest religious problems is that people fear having a relationship with God and consequently distance themselves from Him. Just as angels serve God without fear despite their lower status in comparison to God, so, too, human beings should take their model (walk amongst them) and not be afraid of developing a relationship with God and serving Him. This represents a wholeness that we as human beings are capable of only if we think of ourselves as walking amongst angels. (Sfas Emes, Parshat Beha'alotecha 5636)

Bibliography

Arthur Green, The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet (JPS 1998)
Articles by Dr. Yoram Jacobson
Exile and Redemption in Gur Hasidism (Heb.), Da'at, 2-3 (1978-1979), pp. 175-215.
Truth and Faith in Gur Hasidic Thought (Heb.), in: Studies in Jewish Mysticism, Philosophy and Ethical Literature Presented to Isaiah Tishby, Jerusalem 1986, pp. 593-616.
The Sanctity of the Mundane in the Hasidic School of Gur - Studies in the Understanding of the Sabbath in the Homilies of Sefat Emet (Heb.), in: Hasidism in Poland, Jerusalem 1994, pp. 241-277.
From Youth to Leadership and from Kabbalah to Hasidism - Stages in the Spiritual Development of the Author of Sefat Emet (Heb.), in: Rivkah Shatz-Uffenheimer Memorial Volume, II, Jerusalem 1996, pp. 429-446.
Primordial Chaos and Creation in the Thought of Gur Hasidism, or: the Sabbath that Preceded Creation (Polish), in Duchowosc Zydowska w Polsce, Krakow 2000, pp. 151-171.