Here, however, he engaged in hostile dispute with the Gaon Yechiel Halpern, whose supporters eventually drove Ginsburg from the city.
[4] In 1765 he became rabbi in Metz in France, but an early argument with his congregation led to him refusing to enter the synagogue except to give four sermons a year.
[5] Hasidim considered the Shaagas Aryeh "the definitive talmid hakham (great leader) of the generation."
He knew therefore that he was not long for this world, and pronounced the verse in Hebrew "Aryeh shoag mi loi yiroh"; i.e. that Aryeh (the lion, meaning himself) shoag (roars), but mi (an acronym of Mordecai Yoffeh, but can also mean 'who') loi yiroh (is not afraid).
[6] It is speculated that this legend is the source of the urban myth surrounding the death of the French-Jewish composer Charles-Valentin Alkan, whose family originated from Metz.