Heller, Jehiel ben Aaron
HELLER, JEHIEL BEN AARON
HELLER, JEHIEL BEN AARON (1814–1863), Lithuanian author and preacher. Heller was rabbi of Glusk (district of Volkovisk) before he became rabbi of Plungian where he remained until his death. Like his brother Joshua, Heller was a disciple of R. Israel *Salanter to whose journal, Tevunah, he contributed. He became a popular preacher of the *Musar movement, on various occasions delivering his sermons in German. His published works are Shenei Perakim, or Kevod Melekh (St. Petersburg, 1852), "published by order of the Russian government" and translated into German by Leon *Mandelstamm, dealing with the duty of loyalty to the ruler and obedience to the laws of the country, as laid down in the Bible and Talmud; Ammudei Or (1855), responsa, in his introduction to which Heller deplores the general neglect of Talmud study and expresses his apprehension of the attacks on Jewish beliefs by the protagonists of the *Haskalah; Or Yesharim (1857), a commentary on the Haggadah of Passover; and Oteh Or (1865), a commentary on the Song of Songs.
bibliography:
Fuenn, Keneset, 521f.; Yahadut Lita (1967), 46.
[Jacob Hirsch Haberman]