Rabbi Eliezer Gordon

Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841-1910) also known as Reb Laizer Telzer, served as the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.

Rabbi Eliezer Gordon was born in 1841 (see below for some notes regarding his year of birth) in the Lithuanian village of Chernian, near Vilna (Cherniaty, Belarus today; it is around 30 miles from Svir). His father, Avrohom Shmuel Gordon, was a student of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. As a youngster, he studied in the Zaretza Yeshiva in Vilna. From there, he transferred to the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter in Kovno. Among the yeshiva's outstanding students at the time were Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer, Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, Rabbi Yerucham Perlman and Rabbi Jacob Joseph.

Rabbi Salanter realized that Rabbi Gordon had great potential and appointed him as a maggid shiur in the yeshiva at a young age. After his father-in-law's death, Rabbi Gordon succeeded the latter as Rabbi of Kovno — but he only stayed for three months. On Tuesday, 24 March (6th Nissan) 1874, Rabbi Gordon took over the position of Chief Rabbi at Kelm, where he remained for nine years and founded a Yeshiva. From there, he headed to Slabodka, where he served as Rabbi for about six months. He finally relocated to Telz in 1884, to serve as Rabbi.

Telz

In 1875, Rabbis Meir Atlas, Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim and Shlomo Zalman Abel had founded the Telz Yeshiva. As Rabbi of the town, Rabbi Gordon was also appointed head of the fledgling institution. He instituted numerous innovative ideas in the yeshiva which have since become accepted as standard practice in many contemporary yeshivas.

  1. Hitherto, yeshivas grouped all their students into one general shiur (class). Rabbi Gordon, however, divided the yeshiva into different shiurim commensurate with a student’s age and intellectual level.

2. Rabbi Gordon also promoted a new approach to curriculum in the yeshiva, based primarily on logic and the understanding of the Talmud. While other yeshivas primarily analyzed the later commentaries on the Talmud, such as the Pnei Yehoshua, Maharsha and Maharam Schiff, Rabbi Gordon directed students to probe the earlier works of the Rishonim, such as Ramban, Rashba and Ritva. Nonetheless, he also included the works of certain Acharonim into the curriculum, such as the Ketzos Hachoshen, Nesivos Hamishpat and Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s works.
3. A student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, Rabbi Gordon advocated the study of ethics (mussar) in the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon appointed a special teacher of ethics (mashgiach) to supervise the students spiritual development and to shape their characters according to the approach of Rabbi Salanter. The yeshiva’s first mussar mashgiach was Rabbi Ben Zion Kranitz, a student of Rabbi Simcha Zissel of Kelm. Rabbi Kranitz was very mild mannered, and did not force his students to accept the mussar approach. In 1897, however, Rabbi Gordon engaged a new mussar mashgiach - the dynamic Rabbi Leib Chasman, who instituted a very strict mussar regime in the yeshiva. Many of the students opposed this approach, which caused dissent among the student body.
Rabbi Gordon also felt that important to the success of the yeshiva was employing the highest standard of teachers. Under Rabbi Gordon’s leadership, the yeshiva hired Rabbi Shimon Shkop, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz ("Reb Chaim Telzer"). Rabbi Gordon tried, unsuccessfully to hire Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Rabinowitz ("Reb Itzele Ponovezher") to teach at the yeshiva. Rabbi Gordon himself delivered the highest-level shiur.

In 1908, a fire broke out in Telz, destroying all of the wooden homes in the town, including the yeshiva. In 1910, Rabbi Gordon, who was nearly 70, traveled to Berlin and London along with his wife and younger friend Rabbi Aharon Walkin - the Teshuvos Zekan Aharon of Pinsk - to raise funds for rebuilding the homes and the yeshiva. It was winter, and Rabbi Gordon’s doctors warned him that England's weather was dangerous to his health, especially since he had suffered a heart attack a few years earlier. Nonetheless, Rabbi Gordon could not be deterred.

While in London, Rabbi Gordon suffered a fatal heart attack. His funeral attracted one of the largest crowds London had ever seen; 50,000 mourners at its height.

Dayan Shmuel Yitzchok Hillman of Glasgow and several leading European Rabbis (who where in London at the time) such as Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein of Slabodka, Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (the Ridvaz) of Slutzk and Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the Aderet) delivered tearful eulogies in Yiddish. Eulogies were also delivered in English by Dayan Moses Hyamson of the London Beth Din and Dr Moses Gaster, Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese community.

Rabbi Gordon was buried in the Edmonton Federation Cemetery.

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For more on the Telz Yeshiva that Rabbi Gordon headed, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telz_Yeshiva

A note regarding his age: Most of the histories give a birth date of 1841 or 1842. However, the Revision Lists for Svencionys from 1850 and 1858, as well as his marriage records ALL give a birth date of 1838. The revision lists in particular are from a young age and are likely to be more accurate.

Records exist at LitvakSIG for the births of 14 children between his first two wifes. Some of them likely died young, although no death records are still extant.

Record type State savings bank Birth (implied) Circa 1840 Age 55
Residence Date: Aug 21 1895 Telsiai Kaunas Kaunas
Father Abram Shmuel
Comments Born in svencionys; lived in telsiai; rabbi; 100 ruble; contributed miasnik aleksandr, the son of itsik
Source LVIA/710/1/581 Record # 866 Source website LitvakSIG

Buried in Edmonton Cemetery, London, UK
Plot: E Row/Grave: 09 01Z
Photos of his tombstone can be found here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220313361/eliezer-gordon

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transc...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Gordon
https://www.federation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/tribune-26...
http://www.chareidi.org/archives5774/terumoh/fsrgordntrm74.htm

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