The origin of the name of the town is obscure, although it is alleged to be named after the German spelling of Vilnius, in commemoration of the French occupation of Vilnius, Lithuania in 1812.
Wilna |
Commentaries have been written by Eliezer Lipman of Zamość, Zolkiev, 1723; by Elijah ben Abraham with notes by The Vilna Gaon, Wilna, 1833; by Abraham Witmand, Ahabat Ḥesed, Amsterdam, 1777; and by Joshua Falk, Binyan Yehoshu'a, Dyhernfurth, 1788.
Except in the Wilna and Warsaw editions with their modern and arbitrary divisions, this Midrash consists of six "parashiyyot" (chapters, sections; singular = "parashah") introduced by one or more proems; these chapters begin respectively at Esther i.
Saphir published also Iggeret Teman (Wilna, 1868, consciously titled after Rambam's letter of centuries earlier), a work on the appearance in Yemen of the pseudo-Messiah Judah ben Shalom, and which was largely responsible for ending Judah ben Shalom's career.
He was engaged as a Chaplain at Stockholm by Swedish ambassador to Poland, and later been appointed as a minister of the Lutheran Church at Wilna and Graudentz.
Max Leopold Margolis (born at Meretz (present-day Merkinė), district (guberniya) of Wilna, Russia (now Vilnius, Lithuania), October 15, 1866–1932) was a Russian Empire-born American philologist.
Consequently there are among the Karaites many learned men who are called by the title "ha-melammed ha-gadol" (the great master), or merely "ha-melammed" (the master; comp. Pinsker, "Liḳḳute Ḳadmoniyyot", Index; Gottlober, "Biḳḳoret le-Toledot ha-Ḳara'im", pp. 195, 207, Wilna, 1865).