Judah Loew ben Bezalel

Perels claimed that his grandfather Chajim of Worms was the grandson of Judah Leib the Elder and thus a claimant to the Davidic line, through Sherira Gaon.

Sources in the Lubavitch tradition[12] say that at the age of 12, Loew went to yeshivahs in Poland and studied under Rabbi Yaakov Pollak.

[15] Loew moved to Prague in 1573, where he again accepted a rabbinical position, replacing the retired Isaac Hayoth.

[15][16] Loew's family consisted of his wife, Pearl, six daughters, and a son, Bezalel, who became a rabbi in Kolín, but died early in 1600.

[17] His elder brother was Hayim ben Bezalel, who authored a legal work Vikuach Mayim Chaim which challenged the rulings of Krakow legalist, Moshe Isserles.

"[17] He employed rationalist terminology and classical philosophical ideas in his writings,[17] and supported scientific research on condition that it did not contradict divine revelation.

[15] Nevertheless, Loew's work was in many ways a reaction to the tradition of medieval rationalist Jewish thought, which prioritized a systematic analysis of philosophical concepts, and implicitly downgraded the more colorful and ad-hoc imagery of earlier rabbinic commentary.

According to Loew, the multitude of disconnected opinions and perspectives in classical rabbinic literature do not form a haphazard jumble, but rather exemplify the diversity of meanings that can be extracted from a single idea or concept.

[19] Loew's writings use as sources the Biblical verses and the recorded traditions of the rabbis, but through literary and conceptual analysis he develops these into a comprehensive philosophical system in which the following terminology recurs:[19] An example of this terminology is Loew's philosophical interpretation of the following midrash: "The world was created for three things: challah, maaser, and bikkurim.

[17] It is unknown how many Talmudic rabbinical scholars Loew taught in Moravia, but the main disciples from the Prague period include Rabbis Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller and David Gans.

Kerem Maharal, a moshav in northern Israel, was established by Czech Jewish immigrants and named in Loew's honour.

In April 1997, Czech Republic and Israel jointly issued a set of stamps, one of which featured the tombstone of Loew.

Loew is the subject of the legend about the creation of a golem, a creature made out of clay to defend the Jews of the Prague Ghetto from antisemitic attacks, particularly the blood libel.

[27] The general view of historians and critics is that the legend is a German literary invention of the early 19th century.

His works on the holidays bear titles that were inspired by the Biblical verse in I Chronicles 29:11: "Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth [is Yours]; Yours is the kingdom and [You are He] Who is exalted over everything as the Leader."

Lion of Judah on the Maharal's gravestone.
The Old New Synagogue, Prague where he officiated
Loew's tombstone in the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague
Loew and Golem by Mikoláš Aleš , 1899.
Derech Chaim (Cracow edition)