Perushim

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Seal of the community in Jerusalem (19th-century)

Hurva Synagogue of the Perushim in Jerusalem

The perushim (Hebrew: פרושים) were Jewish disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the 19th century to settle in the Land of Israel, which was then part of Ottoman Syria. They were from the section of the community known as misnagdim (opponents of Hasidic Judaism) in Lithuania.

The name perushim comes from the verb פרש‎ parash "to separate". The group sought to separate themselves from what they saw as the impurities of the society around them in Europe. Coincidentally this was the same name by which the Pharisees of antiquity were known. However the latter-day perushim did not make any claim to be successors of the Pharisees. In the generations before they departed for Israel, the term perushim (spelled in Hebrew פירושים‎) referred to commentaries in the holy books. It was later applied to the Vilna group, alluding to their practice of studying biblical commentaries, not just the Talmud and later commentaries.

Influenced by the Vilna Gaon, who had wanted to go to the Land of Israel but was unable to do so, a large group of his perushim disciples and their families, numbering over 500, with a few dozen younger earlier scouts, were inspired to follow his vision. Enduring great hardships and danger, they traveled to and settled in the Holy Land, where they had a profound effect on the future history of the Old Yishuv. Most of the perushim settled in Safed, Tiberias, Jaffa and in Jerusalem, setting up what were known as the Kollel Perushim, and forming the basis of the Ashkenazi communities there.