This institution was directed by Chief Rabbi Loeb Günzburg (known by this main work, Sha'agat Aryeh), with whom Aaron gained such high favor that at the early age of fifteen he was allowed to deliver a lecture on a halakhic subject in the synagogue of Metz.
Aaron was so conservative in his views that even in his practical life he did not acquire a thorough knowledge of the language of his country, and still regarded the Zohar as a sacred book and as the composition of Simeon ben Yoḥai.
[citation needed] Aaron's son-in-law was Yehuda Meir Lambert, who succeeded him as Chief Rabbi of Metz and opened a rabbinic school in the city and was a fierce opponent against Reform Judaism.
[citation needed] So greatly was Worms influenced by the French Revolution that he even dressed himself in the uniform of the National Guard and, to accord with military regulation, removed his beard.
As a member of the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon, he delivered an impressive address on the "Relations of the Jews to Non-Jews according to Rabbinic Law," in which he demonstrated that the Talmudic opinions concerning the heathen should not be used as guides in the regulation of practical life under the conditions that existed then.
[citation needed] Worms was perhaps the only conservative rabbi of that period who expressed the opinion that it was better to pray in the vernacular than to mutter Hebrew prayers without understanding their meaning.
His insight into the necessity of a reform in divine service is further shown by his protest against the custom of interrupting the ritual prayers by the insertion of piyyuṭim, of whose authors he often spoke derisively.
It contains critical remarks as well as comments on most of the treatises of the Talmud and on a considerable part of the "Oraḥ Ḥayyim" section of the Shulchan Aruch, which exhibit a thoroughly scientific spirit as well as an extraordinary acumen.