Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chełm

Elijah bar Aaron Judah Baal Shem (about 1520 –1583) was a Polish rabbi and kabbalist who served as chief rabbi of Chełm. One of the most eminent Talmudists of his generation, he is recorded as the first person known by the epithet "Ba'al Shem" having been considered a great saint and believed to have used miraculous powers to create a golem.

Life Elijah was born to his father Aaron Judah in 1520.

His great-granddaughter married Rabbi Ephraim ha-Kohen (1616–1678), author of "Sha'ar Efrayim" and grandfather of Rabbi Tzvi Ashkenazi. Finally, the rabbi extracted the Shem from the forehead of his Golem, which returned to dust, thereby rendering it met (dead)(מת).

Although Emden only mentions a scratch on the rabbi's face, a different version of the legend states that while trying to remove the life-giving name of God in an attempt to destroy the raging beast, Rabbi Elijah was crushed to death under the weight of the Golem as it fell to pieces.

Elijah's grandsons, Tzvi Ashkenazi and his son Jacob Emden, were both great Halakhists. They discussed the legal status of the golem: could the golem be counted in a minyan, the quorum of ten men required for prayer. Human form and modicum of understanding were not enough to make something human.

The tale about Elijah's creation of the Golem was retold in the book Israel der Gotteskampfer der Baalschem von Chełm und sein Golem ("Israel God's fighter of Baalshem of Chełm and his Golem") written by Chayim Block and published in 1920.

The attic of the Old Synagogue According to the "Jewish Life and Work in Chełm" chapter of the Commemoration Book of Chełm (Poland) (Yisker-bukh Chełm),

German-Jews of Jerusalem and the Crusades

According to Rabbi Elijah, German Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms, Germany to repay the favor. Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakhic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the eleventh century.

Funeral According to popular legend, Elijah's greatness was witnessed in dramatic fashion soon after his death. It was said that during his time, the only road to the Jewish cemetery passed by a Russian church. Whenever a Jewish funeral procession passed by, Christians would throw rocks. Elijah knew of this and requested in his will that no one move or run away if the Christians did the same following his death.

Elijah's wishes were carried out after his death. When the procession neared the church, gentiles began their ritual of pelting the coffin and the Jews with rocks, Elijah miraculously sat up and, after looking into the Torah scroll that was in the coffin [to be buried with him], the church sank together with the hooligans. The rabbi then lay back and became rigid as a corpse again. The Jews stared at each other in astonishment and the funeral procession continued. From this time forward, it was said that the hooligans no longer threw rocks during Jewish funerals.

Years later, pupils of the Kheder (Jewish elementary school) of a teacher named Leib Paks claimed that in the cellar, when jumping on the floor boards, the muffled ring of a bell sound could be heard. This led the children to believe that that was the very same spot where the church had sunk.

Grave Within the Chełm cemetery, there was a grave without a tombstone which was covered in bricks arranged in the shape of the Hebrew letter "Bet". This was believed to be the final burial place of Rabbi Elijah. Legend has it an angel would appear on the anniversary of his death and etch a letter on a certain brick. Because of this, everyone was afraid to touch the bricks.