In this narrated anecdote, a professor from the University of Padova travels to Vilna to confront the legendary rabbi known as the Vilna Gaon, seeking answers to 70 extremely difficult questions that a king in Italy allegedly sent. The professor claims the questions threaten the Jewish people, prompting the Gaon—who is deep in continuous study—to pause and address them. The Gaon rapidly supplies precise source references for each question, citing a range of classic Jewish texts (e.g., Gemara, Baba Metzia, Baba Batra, Asaf HaChabbar, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch) within minutes. The story emphasizes the Gaon’s unparalleled mastery of the entire corpus of Jewish law and lore, portraying him as a genius whose knowledge surpasses that of a thousand contemporary rabbis. The narrator uses the episode to illustrate the Gaon’s legendary status in Jewish scholarship.
Chapters
You take 1,000 big rabbis today, they cannot be equal to the Gaon of Vilna. It's unheard of who was the Gaon of Vilna. I'll give you an example. There was one professor from Padova, Italy. He heard that there is a rabbi in Vilna that all the Jews praise. Gaon, the Gaon. So he came all the way from Italy to Vilna, to the house of the Gaon of Vilna, and the student over there told him, I'm sorry, you cannot interrupt the rabbi learning. He's learning nonstop. He said, "I have a letter here from the king in Italy. It's an emergency. I must see the rabbis. It's a matter of life and death." When they heard that, they let him in. The Gaon of Vilna was learning with the lamp, learning all his life, was learning nonstop. He said to him, "Rabbi, I have 70 questions that the king sent with me, and they said that the only one who can answer all of them is you. I need you please to tell me the answer that I can go back to Italy because he's threatening the whole Jewish people." Jews that they must come with the answers. He made up that story. So the Rabbi told him, okay, read the questions while he was learning Gemara. How do we know the story? This was 200 years ago. This professor from the University of Padova was one of the first Jews that went to university, and he now, secular, come to the biggest Rabbi in the world to ask him 70 hardest questions that you can ask about religion and life. So the Gaon meveen, now while he was I said to him, okay, read the questions. So he thought maybe he means that I should read all questions, that he should know what this is about, and then we will go one question at a time. He will tell me what to write. So I said to him, read the questions. And he was reading question 1, question 2, 3, 4. Continue, continue. What is going on here? He read 70 questions. After he finished, he said to him, you ready? Married. I'm giving you the answers. Question 1: 7, 13, 22, 45, 59. Gemara, Baba Metzia, Pesha Medaleh, Baba Batra, Asaf HaChabbar, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch. 5 minutes, he told him all the sources. You know, there are 24 books of Judaism, plus the whole Talmud is more than 20 books. You have about more than 50 thick books with millions of words. In less than 5 minutes, he answered him so many questions where to look for the sources while he was in the middle of his learning. The professor wrote in his book, now for the first time in my life, I understood what does it mean, the gaon, the genius.
