Nathan Adler

Who was Nathan Adler?

Nathan hakohen Adler was a German kabbalist born in Frankfurt, December 16, 1741. As a precocious child he won the admiration of Chaim Joseph David Azulai, who, in 1752, came to Frankfurt to solicit contributions for the poor of the Jewish communities in Eretz Yisrael. Adler attended the rabbinical school of Jacob Joshua, author of Pene Yehoshua, who was at that time rabbi at Frankfurt, but his principal teacher was David Tevele Schiff, afterward chief rabbi of the United Kingdom. In 1761 he established a yeshivah 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, rabbi in Presburg.

Nathan Adler devoted himself to the study of the Kabbala, and adopted the liturgical system of Isaac Luria, assembling about himself a select community of kabbalistic adepts. He was one of the first Ashkenazim to adopt the Sephardi pronunciation of Hebrew, and gave hospitality to a Sephardi scholar for several months to ensure that he learnt that pronunciation accurately. He prayed according to the Halebi ritual, pronounced the priestly blessing every day, and in other ways approached the school of the Hasidim, 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, 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.