Shmuel Alexandrov (1865 - 1941) was a Jewish religious scholar
Life
He was born in Borysov, a district of Minsk, to Rabbi Hillel Alexandrov, who was known as the "Shiloach of Shklov". He studied in the local batei midrash and when he was fifteen, he studied chavruta from the local rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda Tzirel. He studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva for a while, but then began studying history, philosophy and natural sciences and left the yeshiva. In his attempt to combine the words of Chazal and the Jewish tradition with his new knowledge, he also learned Kabbalah and Habadic thought and began to formulate an independent worldview.
Together with his friend Josef Meir Eisenstadt, he independently studied reading and writing in Russian and German, thus enabling them to expand the fields of knowledge they were interested in. In the booklet "Tractate Nagaim," which he printed, he sharply criticized the words of the Torah that were printed in the volumes of the journal Ha'asif. The booklet was printed with the funding that his friend, who was the son-in-law of a rich man, obtained and promoted the circles of the maskilim.
In his essays he attempted to incorporate the ideas of well-known philosophers, among others: Schelling, Soloviev, Kant, Hegel and Bergson, with Jewish thought. He found common ground between the philosophy of Chabad and Schilling's philosophy, and focused his philosophy on this line.
His essay, "The Legend of the Oil Fugitive," which supported the article by Haim Zelig Slonimsky, "May Hanukkah" [1], interpreted eligorically the story of the miraculous miracle of oil, a village in the actual occurrence of the miracle and aroused harsh reactions in the conservative street. [2] But caused a sharp condemnation of the ultra-Orthodox circles [3]. In 1893, he wrote his article "The Legend of Fire from Heaven" and devoted it to the Chasam, the article was printed two years later in the journal Talpiot. In a letter to the publisher of Talpiot, Aleksandrov wrote that he regretted the expressions in his essay that he rejected the Jewish tradition of the miracle of the oil, and wrote them only to emphasize his alternative explanation to the legend, To". This is what he wrote in his introduction to his work, Tal Tehiya, on Tractate Avot: "I regret complete repentance for the harsh expressions in the body of the receiving of the oil jug found in the books of the oil drum.
In 1902 he joined the Mizrachi movement and took part in efforts to persuade Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook to join the movement's leadership. He continued to correspond with Rav Kook in the coming years in all his fields of interest.
Until the revolution worked in the bank. After the revolution, his economic situation was difficult, and in 1923 he was offered the rabbinate of Bobruisk in place of Rabbi Simcha Noah Schneerson who died, but he refused but founded the "Ohavei Torah" association, which opened classes in the Talmud, Mishnayot and Rabbinic literature in Bobruisk. Under Communist rule he continued to correspond with various rabbis throughout Russia, but he could not do much.
His brothers and relatives offered him a $ 1,000 fund to immigrate to Israel [4] or to print his writings in the United States. He chose the second option.
Shmuel Alexandrov perished with the liquidation of the Bobruisk ghetto on the 17th of November, 1941. his family
In 1937 he married Gittel, daughter of Mordechai Katzenelson of Bobruisk, and Alexander Alexandrov's wife's family saw him as a bum and removed his two daughters and his only son, and his son Alexander was sent against his will to study in Russian schools. He was known as a historian and researcher of Jewish literature, and he directed the Department of Jewish History in Ancient and Middle Ages at the Institute of Oriental Studies at Leningrad University. archives