Nathan Adler (1741-1800) was a German kabalist born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Dec. 16, 1741. As a precocious child he won the admiration of Ḥayyim Joseph David Azulai (Chida), who, in 1752, came to Frankfort to solicit contributions for the poor of Palestine. Adler attended the rabbinical school of Jacob Joshua, author of Pene Yehoshua, who was at that time rabbi at Frankfort, but his principal teacher was David Tebele Schiff, afterward rabbi in London. In 1761 he established a yeshibah himself, in which several prominent rabbis received their early teachings, notable among whom were Abraham Auerbach, Abraham Bing, rabbi in Würzburg, and especially Moses Sofer (Schreiber), rabbi in Presburg. // Events April 10 - Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz August 10 - Raja of Travancore defeats Dutch East India Company naval expedition at Battle of Colachel December 19 - Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 - Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius... 1800 (MDCCC) was an exceptional common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. ... ... // Events April 10 - Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz August 10 - Raja of Travancore defeats Dutch East India Company naval expedition at Battle of Colachel December 19 - Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 - Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius... 1752 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Holy Land or Palestine Showing not only the Old Kingoms of Judea and Israel but also the 12 Tribes Distinctly, and Confirming Even the Diversity of the Locations of their Ancient Positions and Doing So as the Holy Scriptures Indicate, a geographic map from the studio of Tobiae Conradi... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. ... Moses ben Samuel Sofer (or Schreiber), known to Jews as the Hatam Sofer, or the Chsam Soifer, (after his main work שות חתם סופר - Responsa Hatam Sofer, lit. ... Bratislava (until 1919: PreÅ¡porok in Slovak, Pressburg in German and English; Pozsony in Hungarian) is the capital of Slovakia and the countrys largest city, with a population of some 450,000. ...

Nathan Adler was mystically inclined. He had devoted himself to the study of the Kabala, and adopted the liturgical system of Isaac Luria, assembling about himself a select community of cabalistic adepts. He prayed according to the Sephardic ritual, pronounced the priestly blessing every day, and in other ways approached the school of the Ḥasidim, who had at that time provoked the strongest censures on the part of the Talmudists of the old school. His followers claimed that he had performed miracles (Moses Sofer, Ḥatam Sofer, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 197), and turned visionaries themselves, frightening many persons with predictions of misfortunes which would befall them. Finally, the rabbis and congregational leaders intervened in 1779 and prohibited, under penalty of excommunication, the assemblies in Nathan Adler's house. The tree of life Kabbalah (קבלה Reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah) is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ... The Grave of Isaac Luria in Safed Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–July 25, 1572) was a Jewish scholar and mystic. ... In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Səfardim, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardîm) is a Jew original to the... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

R. Nathan, however, paid no attention to these orders, but continued in his ecstatic piety. He even excommunicated a man who had disregarded his orders, although this was contrary to the laws of the congregation. His doors remained open day and night, and he declared all his possessions to be common property, that thus he might prevent the punishment of those who might carry away by mistake anything with them. Moreover, he commanded Moses Sofer, who had quarreled with his father, never to speak to his parent again. When the same disciple reported to him that he had gone through the whole Talmud, he advised him to celebrate that event by a fast of three days.

In spite of the continued conflict with the congregational authorities, the fame of R. Nathan's piety and scholarship grew, and in 1782 he was elected rabbi of Boskowitz in Moravia. But his excessive and mystical piety having made enemies for him, he was forced to leave his congregation, and in 1785 returned to Frankfort. As he still persisted in his former ways, the threat of excommunication was renewed in 1789, which act was not repealed until shortly before his death at Frankfort on Sept. 17, 1800. His wife, Rachel, daughter of Feist Cohen of Giessen, survived him. He left no children, though Nathan Marcus Adler, chief rabbi of London, was named after him. 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Boskovice (-Czech, German: Boskowitz) is a town in the Czech Republic. ... Flag of Moravia Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava; German: ; Hungarian: ; Polish: ) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Gießen (Giessen pronunciation) is a city in the federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse in Germany, capital of the Gießen district. ... Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, a. ...

His mysticism seems to have been the cause of his repugnance to literary publications. The cabalists claimed that real esoteric theology should never be published, but should only be orally transmitted to worthy disciples. In his copy of the Mishnah he wrote brief marginal notes, mostly cross-references. Some of them were collected and explained with admirable ingenuity by B. H. Auerbach under the title Mishnat Rabbi Natan. One responsum is found among those of Moses Sofer on Yoreh De'ah, 261. The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ...

Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography

• Auerbach, preface to "Mishnat Rabbi Natan," Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1862;
• M. Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen, iv. 38 et seq., Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1885;
• S. Schreiber, Huṭ ha-Meshulash (Biographies of Moses Sofer, Akiba Eger, and Abraham Samuel Benjamin Sofer), pp. 2b et seq. (full of legends), Pecs, 1887;
• L. Löw, Gesammelte Schriften, ii. 91-94, Szegedin, 1890.

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...