The Community and neighbors of the Vilna Gaon: socio-topography of the Vilna Gaon as a person and as a legend

ENThe article describes the historical socio-topography of Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-1797), the Vilna Gaon, in the city of Vilnius, and discusses a few questions not previously addressed in the historiography: Who were the neighbors of the Vilna Gaon? Where and in what kind of environment did he live? Do the widely known legends accurately reflect the Gaon’s reality? The primary sources used for this paper were the 1764-65 and 1784 censuses of the Jewish population of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, which included the Vilnius kahal, the Gaon and his neighbors. The paper discusses little-known non-legendary aspects of the Gaon’s persona. It seems that the legends are more interesting, more inspiring and more dynamic than the actual life of the Vilna Gaon in a Jewish quarter tenement house. Kaywords: Vilna Gaon; Vilnius Jewish community; environment of Vilna Gaon; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Vilnius Jewish quarter. [From the publication]