thor, was competent enough to teach him. At seven, he worsted the
chief rabbi of his native city in a Talmudic discussion. At nine, there
was nothing in Jewish literature with which he was not familiar, and he
turned to other studies to satisfy his craving for knowledge. And at
thirteen, he was acknowledged by his fellows as the greatest of
Talmudists.[14] He had neither guide nor teacher. All unaided he
discovered the path of truth. He held neither a rabbinical nor any other
public office. He was as retiring as the Besht was aggressive.
Nevertheless his word was law, and his influence immense. The centenary
of his death (1897) was celebrated among all classes with the solemnity
which the memories of "men of God" inspire.[15]

Now, this Gaon of Vilna, or Hagra, was perhaps no less dissatisfied with
prevailing conditions than the Besht, but his remedy for them was as
different as the two personalities were unlike. He did not desire to
abolish the Talmud, but rather to render it more attractive, by making
its acquisition easier and putting its study on a scientific basis. Even
in Lithuania, the citadel of the Talmud, the development of Talmudic
learning had been hampered. In accordance with a Talmudic principle,
mankind is continually degenerating, not only physically, but morally
and mentally as well. It holds that if "the ancients were angels, we are
mere men; if they were but men, we are asses." This high regard for
antiquity produced a belief in the infallibility of the rabbis on the
part of the Mitnaggedim, similar to that in their zaddikim by the
Hasidim. No scholar of a later generation dared disagree with the
statement of a rabbi of a previous generation. But as authorities
sometimes conflict with each other, the Talmudists regarded it their
duty to reconcile them or to prove, in the words of the ancient sages,
that "these as well as those are the words of the living God."
Similarly, the popes declared that, despite their contradictions, the
Biblical translations of Sixtus V and Clement VIII were both correct.

It is true that Lithuanian Talmudists were not always the slaves of
authority which they ultimately became. A study of the works of the
early Slavonian rabbis, before and after Rabbi Polack, shows that they
were free from unhealthy awe of their predecessors, and sometimes were
audaciously independent. Neither Solomon Luria (Maharshal), Samuel Edels
(Maharsha), or Meir Lublin (Maharam) refrained from critici