Gadol


Gadol or godol is used by religious Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of the generation.

Usage

The term gadol hador refers to the "great/est the generation" denoting one rabbi who is presumed to be even greater than the others. Other variations of the term are Gadol Yisrael or a Gadol BeYisrael, meaning "great one of the Jewish people".
A similar title is Rashkebahag, which is an acronym for "Rabbon shel kol bnei hagolah". Another term is Manhig Yisroel, literally "leader of Israel".
The title gadol hador is usually only given to one Jewish Sage at a time, while the title "Rashkebahag" can be given to a few, and the term Gedolei Yisrael collectively refers to all leading rabbis in the Haredi community.
The term is generally applied to rabbinic leaders since World War I. Major rabbis from earlier generations are known as Rishonim or Achronim.

Role

Most often a gadol functions as a rosh yeshiva, and can be a Hasidic Rebbe. A gadol is quite often also a posek and may be the author of rabbinic literature and responsa.
Adherents of Haredi Judaism often presume that a gadol has some degree of ruach hakodesh ; the gadol's teachings and statements therefore become the crux of Daas Torah.
Rabbi Chaim Epstein has been quoted as saying:

Related concepts

In Hebrew halachic texts, gadol is also used as a term for a Jewish boy who turns thirteen, and is viewed as an adult regarding to his obligation to practice the 613 commandments. This is the age of Bar Mitzvah. When a Jewish girl reaches the age of twelve, according to Jewish law, she is called a gedolah.
Kohen Gadol refers to the high priests in the Jewish Temples. Shabbat Hagadol is the Shabbat prior to Passover.
In modern Hebrew, gadol as slang is used as an interjection to mean something is extremely cool, out of this world, superb, awesome, absurdly funny or hilarious. For example, upon hearing a funny joke one might interject "Gadol!"
In English writing, the transliterated word "gadol" generally refers to a prominent rabbi.