Background
He was born in Opatow, Poland, to a distinguished family of scholarly leaders descended from Rashi.
He was born in Opatow, Poland, to a distinguished family of scholarly leaders descended from Rashi.
A brilliant student from his youth, he specialized in Talmud and rabbinic law.
When he was thirteen he went to Brody, a great center of scholarship and by the early age of twenty was appointed one of the city’s rabbinic judges.
Ten years later, he became rabbi of Jampol, and ten years after that, rabbi of Prague and the region where he remained for the rest of his life. He had the title of Chief Rabbi of the Austrian Empire and was recognized throughout the Jewish world as its leading authority.
When Prague was besieged in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1764), he mobilized Jewish support for the government and as a result changed the attitude of the authorities from distrust to confidence in their Jewish subjects. When Empress Maria Theresa visited Prague at the end of the war, she accepted Landau’s blessings at an official reception. He used his close relationship with the authorities to benefit the Jewish community.
Nocla bi-Yehuda was the outstanding book of responsa (rabbinical replies to questions of Jewish law) of the eighteenth century. Landau’s unrivaled dau’s death. He issued various sumptuary laws, that is, regulations restricting ostentatious behavior within the community. His other works included commentaries on parts of the Talmud, corrections of mistakes in texts of the codes, and ethical sermons.
His way of life was ascetic — for example, in the nine days up to the Ninth of Ab (a period of mourning for the destruction of the Temples) he ate only dry bread sprinkled with ashes.
He was implacably opposed to the messianic movements of Shabbetai Tzevi and Jacob Frank and was similarly critical of Enlightenment tendencies, as expressed, for example, in the German Bible translation of Moses Mendelssohn, which introduced a new altitude that he felt threatened traditional Jewish life. He was not, however, opposed to the acquisition of secular knowledge, with which he himself was familiar, and he encouraged his sons to follow his example.
Quotations:
FROM THE WRITINGS OF EZEKIEL LANDAU
My father raised me in an atmosphere of learning. He possessed scholarship and prestige. People would solicit his advice and favor. I am honored because of him. People have sought my instruction from my early youth. There is no special wisdom in me; there are far greater scholars living in obscurity, of whom no one makes inquiries, while I rise to find hundreds of people knocking on my door. God was indeed wonderful to me all these years because of the merit of my father.