Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius held a ceremony (modest in accordance with coronavirus restrictions) on Thursday to mark 300 years since the Vilna Gaon was born.
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania, Yossi Avni-Levy, was present at the ceremony, during which Linkevičius put a stone on the Gra’s tzion and spoke about the “deep connection between Lithuanians and Jews and the Gaon’s contribution to Vilna’s reputation as ‘Yerushalayim D’Lita.'”
Linkevičius tweeted about the event in English and Hebrew, writing: “300 years since the birth of Vilna Gaon. Today, by his grave in Vilnius, I am paying the highest tribute to Vilna Gaon, an eternal symbol of Lithuanian Jewish culture and history. The magnitude of Vilna Gaon’s contribution to the spiritual Jewish life is immensely important.”
300 years since the birth of Vilna Gaon. Today, by his grave in Vilnius, I am paying the highest tribute to Vilna Gaon, an eternal symbol of Lithuanian Jewish culture and history. The magnitude of Vilna Gaon's contribution to the spiritual Jewish life is immensely important. pic.twitter.com/9K8SYAxqQS
— Linas Linkevicius (@LinkeviciusL) April 23, 2020
The Lithuanian government had declared this year as the “Year of the Gaon” and had planned to hold a series of events in his honor but most of them were canceled in face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz retweeted Linkevičius’s post in Hebrew and thanked him for the tribute to the Gra.
300 years ago today, one of Judaism’s greatest religious thinkers, the Vilna Gaon was born in Vilnius. His legacy & the rich history of Lithuania’s Jewish community lives on. Thank you to FM @LinkeviciusL for this meaningful tribute at the Vilna Gaon’s grave this morning. https://t.co/sZBbq2DdmU
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) April 23, 2020
There are currently 1,398 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Lithuania and 38 fatalities.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
They say everyone can become a Vilna Gaon ob mevilna, will nor, if we want. יהי רצון if there is a will it can happen and there is a way.
They make a show of honoring the Vilna Gaon, whose kever was moved from the old Shnipishok Vilnius Jewish cemetery decades ago, while at the same time they are planning to build a massive development on those old Jewish cemetery grounds, where remains of the relatives of the Gaon and many others are still extant. A diversionary tactic, PR slight of hand, a sham. And what about them owning up in a real way, to the very extensive and brutal Lithuanian collaboration with the Nazis in the WWII era, instead of honoring some such criminals by naming streets, etc., after them? What about them fulfilling their responsibilities in terms of restitution of Jewish property seized in the WWII era (beyond just a pittance)?
If we are fooled by cheap gestures such as this, we are not following in the way of the Vilna Gaon zt”l, zy”a, who would have seen right through them, and called out this scam.
Another important point – they produced a video calling the Gaon ‘the genius of Vilnius’ (which can be seen, via the twitter account connected to the featured tweet above). That makes it sound like the Vilna Gaon was something like Albert Einstein, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, and so on. While it is true that he was a genius, that is not an accurate translation of what the title gaon means here, nor what the Vilna Gaon was. It means (and he was) a great Jewish religious leader, a great talmid chochom, towering scholar, theologian, devoutly and intensely religious, not a scientist with little (if any) connection to faith. In the short video they say that Litvak mothers would tell their children in a play on the words Vilna Gaon, that if they will it they could be become a genius, like if they will it, they could become Einstein. No, that is not what was/is meant by that expression. It means that youngsters in Lita were told that they could become a gaon, a great religious figure like the Vilna Gaon, not a great scientist. Though the Vilna Gaon was quite knowledgeable in general wisdom beyond Torah, he was not a scientist in the way Einstein was.
Anyway, the bottom line is, (relatively cheap and easy) gestures and symbolism can be nice, and we can salute and applaud them, but * not * if they are intended as diversions and substitutes for doing the right thing in matters of grave substance and importance, such as protecting Jewish cemeteries like the one threatened right now in Shnipishok, Vilna, and other important issues.
If we allow ourselves to be fooled by cheap gestures and PR, shame on us, the Vilna Gaon would not be proud to see his kin taken for fools so easily. Time to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.