Maharal

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Borrowed from Hebrew מהר״ל, an acronym of מוֹרֵינוּ הַרָב לֵיווא (Moreinu Ha-Rav Loew, “our teacher Rabbi Loew”), referring to Judah Loew ben Bezalel (circa 1512-26–1609).

Proper noun

Maharal

1. (often with "the") Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a Jewish mystic, philosopher and Talmudic scholar, and a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia (both in present-day Czech Republic).

   Synonym: Maharal of Prague

   • 1988 [Harper & Row], Howard Schwartz, Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, 1991, Oxford University Press, Paperback Edition, page 145,

     Now during the days preceding the time of Mordecai's Bar Mitzvah, Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, known as the Maharal, had a series of dreams that had come to haunt him. In the first dream the Maharal found a letter nailed to his front door, like a proclamation, that stated that the life of the boy Mordecai, whose soul could bring great blessing to the Jewish people, hung in the balance, and that only the Maharal could save him.

   • 1995 [Yale University Press], David B. Ruderman, Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe, 2001, Wayne State University Press, Paperback Edition, page 65,

     Two other studies of the Maharal take Ben Sasson's position. The first is Aharon Kleinberger's extensive comparison of the Maharal’s pedagogic views with those of the Bohemian reformer J. A. Comenius.

   • 1995, Roland Goetschel, “The Maharal of Prague”, in Karl Erich Grözinger, Joseph Dan, editors, Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism: International Symposium, Walter de Gruyter, page 173:

     It would appear that this remark does not do justice to the place of the Kabbalah in the writings of the Maharal.