Obj. ID: 54465
Sacred and Ritual Objects  Mazal Tov, Budapest, circa 1925

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

The amulet is another micrographic work by Tzvi Hirsch Samuel of Maros Vasarhely, another of which is in the Gross Family Collection. The portrait in this technique in the center is of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. The amulet is to be hung in the room to protect both mother and child. Tzvi Hirsch did other micrographic works as well, including a Mizrach/Shiviti in the Gross Family Collection and another work in the David Stern collection in Philadelphia. Apparently three different Rabbinical portrait amulets were printed, two of which are in the Gross Family Collection, the other being 027.011.143.

Rabbi Akiva Eiger,  Yiddish: עקיבא אייגער‎, (Eisenstadt, 1761 – Poznań, 1837) was an outstanding Talmudic scholar, influential halakhic decision and foremost leader of European Jewry during the early 19th century. He was also a mohel.

Eiger was born in Eisenstadt - the most important town of the Seven Jewish Communities of Burgenland, Hungary, (now Austria). He was a child prodigy and was educated first at the Mattersdorf yeshiva and later by his uncle, Rabbi Wolf Eger, (1756-1795) (b. 5516, d. 6 Tishrei 5556), at the Breslau (Wrocław) yeshiva, who later became rabbi of Tziltz and Leipnik. Out of respect for his uncle, he changed his surname to Eger. He therefore shared the full name Akiva Eger with his maternal grandfather, the first Rabbi Akiva Eger (1722-1758) (b. 5482, d. 15 Elul 5518), the author of Mishnas De'Rebbi Akiva who was rabbi of Zülz, Silesia from 1749 and Pressburg from 1756.

He was the rabbi of Märkisch Friedland, West Prussia, from 1791 until 1815; then for the last twenty-two years of his life, he was the rabbi of the city of Posen (Poznań). He was a rigorous casuist of the old school, and his chief works were legal notes and responsa on the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh. He believed that religious education was enough, and thus opposed the party which favored secular schools. He was a determined foe of the Reform movement, which began to make itself felt in his time.