R. Elijah ben Solomon (Vilna Gaon, Gr”a, 1720–1797) was one of the greatest spiritual and intellectual leaders of Jewry in modern times. A man of iron will, R. Elijah combined the personal life of an intellectual hermit with active and polemical leadership in Jewish society through his overwhelming influence on a chosen circle of disciples. Born in Selets, Grodno province, he came from a well-known rabbinical and scholarly family, whose members included R. Moses Rivkes. From his childhood, R. Elijah showed unusual gifts. At the age of six and a half, he gave a homily in the synagogue of Vilna and answered with great perception the rabbi's questions on it. When he was seven, Abraham Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of Brest-Litovsk, took him to R. Moses Margalioth of Keidany (Kedainiai), with whom Elijah studied for a time. However he mainly studied on his own, and thus remained untrammeled by the conventional methods of talmudic education of his day. Besides the Torah and the Oral Law, Elijah also studied Kabbalah, and before the age of 13 attempted to cultivate "practical" Kabbalah and to create a golem. Elijah stated, however, that "while I was making it, an image appeared above me, and I ceased from making it, for I said, doubtless God is preventing me" (ḤR. ayyim of Volozhin, in Sifra de Ẓeni'uta (with a commentary by the Vilna Gaon), introd.). R. Elijah also acquainted himself with astronomy, geometry, algebra, and geography in order to understand certain talmudic laws and discussions. Thus his main concern with astronomy was to understand the rules of the Jewish calendar. For similar reasons he paid great attention to Hebrew grammar. After his marriage around the age of 18 he would seclude himself in a small house outside the city and concentrate on learning day and night. Over time, Elijah became known as the Gaon and Ḥasid. The first appellation is based on his enormous scholarship that spanned the entirety of rabbinic literature, including the vast world of Midrash and kabbalistic literature. In addition, the depth of his knowledge and understanding is evident in his writings. The combination of Elijah's asceticism and almost obsessive devotion to Torah study and religious observance earned him the title of Ḥasid. Through his teachings and actions Elijah did much to form the characteristics of the "Litvak" Mitnaggedim peculiar to Lithuanian Jewish culture whose achievements attained their pinnacle of expression in the 19th century in the many celebrated yeshivot of Lithuania, such as those of Volozhin and Mir. The semi-legendary figure of saint and intellectual giant towered over Lithuanian Jewry and influenced its cultural life in the 19th and into the 20th centuries.

כד מאמרים מגמרא ומשאר ספרים" לקוחים מספר "שיורי המדות". "ענינים פשוטים מסוד הקבלה" נלקטו מספר שערי צדק לר' יוסף גיקאטיליא, ריווא דטרינטו (שכ"א). "מרגניתא טבא" היא הדרשה האחת-עשרה מדרשות הר"ן [ר' נסים ב"ר ראובן גירונדי] ז"ל: "וקצת שינוי יש כאן לפי שהוא מאריך". חלק ב לא נדפס.