The yahrzeit of the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk (author of Noam Elimelech) falls out this year on Friday 21 March 2025 (that is, the 21st of Adar). In honor of the occasion, I wanted to devote a special article to the masculine given name Elimelech and its use throughout the ages.
A popular saying immortalized on the Rambam’s tombstone says, “From Moses [son of Amram] to Moses [son of Maimon], there was none like Moses.” The implication of this epithet is that from the time of the Biblical Moses until the time of Moses Maimonides, there was nobody in between named Moses who reached the same levels of importance and popularity as the Biblical Moses or Maimonides. But the chassidim have a different adage: “From Elimelech to Elimelech, there was none like Elimelech.” This saying is attributed to the chassidic master Rabbi Eliezer Horowitz of Dzików (1790–1860), and in the paragraphs that follow, we will attempt to explain what it means.
Before I explain what that adage might mean, allow me to introduce (or re-introduce) to you two characters named Elimelech: The Biblical Elimelech, who appears at the beginning of Megillas Ruth, was married to his niece Naomi. He was described as one of the great men of his generation (Bava Batra 91a). During a famine, Elimelech emigrated from the Holy Land to the Land of Moab with his family. His sons, Machlon and Kilyon, married Moabite women named Ruth and Orpah. By the third verse of Ruth, Elimelech and his two sons had already died, leaving behind his widow, Naomi, and their childless daughters-in-law.
The rest of the story focuses on the relationship between Naomi and her daughters-in-law, particularly Ruth, who remained devoted to her. It was through the dynamic of Naomi’s guidance and the responsibility taken by Elimelech’s nephew Boaz that Ruth eventually became the ancestress of King David, establishing the Davidic dynasty.
Another man named Elimelech lived almost three millennia later: The famed chassidic rebbe Rabbi Elimelech Weisblum of Lizhensk (1717–1786). He was the author of Noam Elimelech, one of the foundational works of chassidic thought and spirituality. Revered by chassidic communities and beyond, that work offers profound homilies on the weekly parshiyot of the Torah, spiritual guidance, and a distinctive theology centered on the role of the tzaddik. His teachings are often infused with mystical insights and practical applications. In doing so, the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech masterfully weaved together Biblical verses, Midrashic teachings, and Kabbalistic principles to uncover layers of spiritual meaning. Overall, his interpretations aim to inspire greater devotion, introspection, and connection to Hashem. (In the interest of full disclosure: According to family lore, I am a descendant of the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, and I have a son named Yisroel Elimelech, who was technically named after an ancestor from a different branch of the family.)
To make a long story short, the chassidic saying that I cited in the beginning basically argues that from the time of the Biblical Elimelech to the time of the chassidic master the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech, there were no important Jewish figures who bore the name Elimelech. Indeed, if you look in the Bible, there was only one person named Elimelech (unlike other names like Eliezer, which were borne by nine different people in the Bible) and even after that, there were no Tannaic or Amoraic sages named Elimelech (unlike, say Eliezer, of which there were many).
I am anticipating a deluge of angry letters from people listing off important persons named Elimelech that I’ve ignored, but the truth remains that despite the continued use of that personal name since Biblical times, Elimelech was always a fairly rare name until the times of the Noam Elimelech. I would love to say that I can debunk that chassidic adage about there not being any significant individuals named Elimelech, but ultimately the assertion still stands.
That does not mean that there weren’t people before the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech who were named Elimelech. I was pretty easily able to come up with some examples: A responsa probably written in the 1300s by Rabbi Yitzchak ben Mordechai published in Teshuvos Maharam M’Rothenberg V’Chavreirav is addressed to one Rabbi Elimelech Katz. In the next century, Rabbi Yaakov Weil (known as Mahari Weil) mentions an Ashkenazi sage named Rabbi Avraham ben Elimelech Katz. Those two examples shows that in practice the name Elimelech was in use to some extent in Ashkenaz.
Rabbi Betzalel Landau (1923–1996) points to a fellow named Rabbi Elimelech son of Yosef Sagi-Nahor as having collected charity for the Jewish community in Safed. His name is mentioned in the pinkas of the Jewish community of Worms in an entry dated 1581. Likewise, my colleagues at the Otzar HaChochmah forums have pointed to various publishers whose name (or the name of their father) was Elimelech. But these are all obscure figures and indeed their significance pales in comparison to that of the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech, so again, the assertion behind the chassidic adage in question remains in place.
I should also mention that the halachic literature on spelling names for gittin discuss the name Elimelech. These sources include Rabbi Shlomo Luria’s Yam Shel Shlomo (in the 1500s), Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi’s Nachalas Shiva (in the 1600s), Rabbi Shmuel of Furth’s Beis Shmuel (late 1600s). The name Elimelech especially comes up in the context of its association with the name Philto or Filta. I thought that those latter names were diminutives of Paltiel, but Rabbi Shaul Goldman sees them as forms of the Latin name Philotheou/Philotheos, which literally means “beloved of God” (and is Germanized into Gottlieb, which means the same). The presence of the name Elimelech in these halachic works again shows that despite there being a dearth of prominent rabbinic figures that bore that name, it was indeed used before the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk came along. In fact, the Rebbe himself had an uncle named Rabbi Elimelech Pilt/Filt, who was an attendant to the Maggid of Mezritch (1704–1772).
If we analyze the Biblical Hebrew name Elimelech from an onomastic perspective, it is apparent that the name is comprised of the theophoric element E-l (literally, “G-d,” an epithet of Hashem) with the first-person possessive suffix yod (meaning “my”), plus the word melech (“king”). Thus, the name literally means “My God is King.”
A popular nickname derived from the name Elimelech is Melech (or Meilech when pronounced with a chasidic accent). That nickname is derived by simply lobbing of the first part of the name and leaving just the melech element. In fact, it is related that the Rebbe’s younger brother, Rabbi Meshullam Zishe of Anipoli (1719–1800), and Rebbe’s student, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz (1745–1815), known as the Chozeh of Lublin, referred to him simply as “Reb Melech.” Over time, the name Melech began to be used as an independent given name. For example, Professor Marc B. Shapiro of the University of Scranton signs his name in Hebrew as Melech Shapiro.
The name Elimelech appears in one of the places where you’d least expect it: in the context of ancient Ugaritic mythology and the Baal Cycle. Ugarit was an ancient Canaanite city-state located in modern-day Syria, notable for its rich trove of cuneiform tablets discovered at the site of Ras Shamra. These tablets, written in the Ugaritic language (which is a close relative to Hebrew), provide a window into the religion, mythology, and culture of the Canaanites. Among the most famous texts is the Baal Cycle, a series of mythological poems that describe the exploits of Baal, the storm god, and his interactions with other deities, including El, another important god in the Canaanite pantheon. Whereas in the Bible, E-l is a descriptor that refers to Hashem, the Canaanites misappropriated that word as a reference to an independent deity named El (who was said to be the father of Baal).
Anyways, one particularly intriguing tablet from the Baal Cycle concludes with the statement: “Written by Elimelech the Shabnite.” This inscription reveals that Elimelech was the name of a Canaanite scribe involved in documenting these mythological tales. The very name “Elimelech,” meaning “My God is King,” seems to mean something different from what it does in the Biblical name Elimelech, as it appears within an idolatrous framework that widely diverged from the Bible.
What makes this particularly fascinating is a possible Biblical parallel: the existence of a scribe named Shebna, who served in the royal court of King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. Shebna is mentioned several times in the Bible (notably in Isaiah 36:3, 36:22, 37:2, as well as II Kings 18:18, 18:37, and 19:2). He was a prominent official, likely involved in managing royal correspondence and documentation, much like his Ugaritic counterpart Elimelech the scribe who calls himself a Shabnite (or Shebnite).
I’d like to end off with an oft-repeated story about a child named after the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech, although I don’t know whether it’s actually true or merely an urban legend: The well-known anecdote tells of a secular Israeli couple who chose to name their son “Noam Elimelech,” unaware of the name’s association with the classic chasidic work. According to the tale, when they had faced health challenges in having a child, a religious acquaintance suggested that they pray at the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech’s tomb in Poland, invoking his merit to ask Hashem for a child. The parents reportedly made the journey and credited the birth of their child to this act of spiritual connection.
As a way of “repaying” the Rebbe, they promised to name their child after him. But they felt the name Elimelech was too traditionalist and antiquated, so they did not want to actually name their son Elimelech. Instead, they opted to use Elimelech as his middle name, but gave him the first name Noam, which is a popular Modern Israeli name. Needless to say, the name Noam does not appear in the Bible nor in rabbinic literature as a personal name, although it appears as a word that means “pleasant.” Unbeknownst to the parents, they were actually naming their child after the aforementioned work penned by the Rebbe Rabbi Elimelech in whose merit they were granted a child from Above. My readers don’t need me to point out that noam is actually a cognate of the Biblical Hebrew name Naomi, which brings us full circle back to the Biblical Elimelech.
While the story is heartwarming, it carries the hallmarks of an urban legend. The dramatic coincidence of the name, the journey to a revered tomb, and the miraculous recovery might be more folklore than fact. Yet, it speaks to the deep resonance of Jewish tradition, where names and spiritual practices often intertwine in surprising ways, bridging even secular and religious divides.
