WEIL, TIAH (JEDIDIAH):

German rabbi; born at Prague Oct. 2, 1721; died at Carlsruhe Oct. 10, 1805. He was the son of Nethaneel Weil and received his early instruction from his father. In 1744 he married Gitel, daughter of Jacob Eger, a well-to-do resident of Prague; but the expulsion of the Jews from Prague ordered by Maria Theresa drove him to Metz in 1745, where he remained until 1748, continuing his studies under Jonathan Eybeschütz. Returning to Prague, he lived in great difficulties until, in 1754, he became rabbi of Wottitz, in Bohemia. In 1758 he again settled in Prague, which he left in 1770 to succeed his father in the rabbinate of Carlsruhe. Of his works only a commentary on the Passover Haggadah has been printed (Carlsruhe, 1791, published anonymously). Responsa of his are found in the collection of Ezekiel Landau and in his father's "Netib Ḥayyim" (Fürth, 1779). Numerous novellæ and homilies are preserved in manuscript. His will shows him to have been a man of genuine piety and a believer in the Cabala. Among his descendants there were several rabbis: his grandson R. Jacob Weil was the author of a compendium of Sabbath laws ("Torat Shabbat," Carlsruhe, 1839), and his great-grandson Nethaneel Weil, was Klaus-rabbi at Carlsruhe (May 1, 1892).

Bibliography:
  • Löwenstein, Beiträge zur Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, vol. ii., Frankfort-on-the-Main.
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