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RELIGIOUS FIGURE

Vilna Gaon

1720 - 1797

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Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, (Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman), also known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון Der Vilner Goen; Polish: Gaon z Wilna, Gaon Wileński; { or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gra ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 1720 – Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Lithuanian Jewish Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non-hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ha-Gaon mi-Vilna, "the genius from Vilnius".Through his annotations and emendations of Talmudic and other texts, he became one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. Although he is chronologically one of the Acharonim, some considered him one of the RishonimLarge groups of people, including many yeshivas, uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites (minhag), the "minhag ha-Gra", named after him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailing Ashkenazi minhag in Jerusalem.Born in Sielec in the Brest Litovsk Voivodeship (today Sialiec, Belarus), the Gaon displayed extraordinary talent while still a child. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Vilna Gaon has received more than 654,255 page views. His biography is available in 33 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 30 in 2019). Vilna Gaon is the 816th most popular religious figure (down from 715th in 2019), the 27th most popular biography from Belarus (down from 24th in 2019) and the most popular Belarusian Religious Figure.

Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon, was a famous Talmudic scholar and the leader of the Mitnagdic Jewish community in the 18th century. He is most famous for his work on the Talmud, which he would study for hours each day.

Memorability Metrics

  • 650k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 61.14

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 33

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.24

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.77

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Vilna Gaons by language


Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES

Among religious figures, Vilna Gaon ranks 816 out of 2,238Before him are Archduke Rudolf of Austria, Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Nathan Söderblom, Hemma of Gurk, Giovanni Battista Re, and Nicolaus Zinzendorf. After him are Saint Malachy, Mammes of Caesarea, Haran, Rashid Rida, Eduardo Martínez Somalo, and Saint Maurus.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1720, Vilna Gaon ranks 10Before him are Anna Maria Mozart, Philip, Duke of Parma, Carlo Gozzi, James Hargreaves, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, and Emperor Sakuramachi. After him are Charles Bonnet, Heraclius II of Georgia, Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Honoré III, Prince of Monaco, Hyder Ali, and William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire. Among people deceased in 1797, Vilna Gaon ranks 9Before him are Mary Wollstonecraft, Frederick William II of Prussia, François-Noël Babeuf, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, James Hutton, and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern. After him are Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, Lazare Hoche, Joseph Wright of Derby, Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, Horace Walpole, and Olaudah Equiano.

Others Born in 1720

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Others Deceased in 1797

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In Belarus

Among people born in Belarus, Vilna Gaon ranks 27 out of 330Before him are Pavel Sukhoi (1895), Stanislav Shushkevich (1934), Bronislav Kaminski (1899), Francysk Skaryna (1486), Zalman Shazar (1889), and Léon Bakst (1866). After him are Raphael Lemkin (1900), Irving Berlin (1888), Alexander Parvus (1867), Maria Kaczyńska (1942), Stanisław Moniuszko (1819), and Isser Harel (1912).

Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES In Belarus

Among religious figures born in Belarus, Vilna Gaon ranks 1After him are Kirill of Turov (1130), Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838), Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1789), Tadevuš Kandrusievič (1946), and Aleksandr Kurlovich (1961).