Sekl Loeb Wormser

Sekl Loeb Wormser (1768-1846) was a rabbi, talmudist, kabbalist, and Baal Shem (worker of miracles through the Name of God).

He was born in Michelstadt. He received his talmudic education in Frankfurt, in the yeshiva of Rabbi Nathan Adler, and following in the latter's footsteps, accepted an ascetic way of life and turned to kabbalistic studies. About 1790, after his first marriage, he returned to Michelstadt where he maintained a yeshivah for many years and served, at first unofficially, until 1822 as a recognized district rabbi. About 1810, after his wife's death, he lived for some time in Mannheim. For years, his "hasidic" behavior and extreme vegetarianism created tension between him and the majority of his small community, but his reputation as a Baal Shem spread rapidly and Wormser became known throughout Germany as the Michelstadter Ba'al Shem, or the "Ba'al Shem of Michelstadt." He denied any such supernatural power but agreed to receive people who sought his advice and guidance, giving them natural remedies and sometimes amulets. He became particularly known for his treatment of lunatics. Among the Jews of southern Germany many traditions survived regarding his miraculous cures and other feats. He studied German philosophy and was particularly attracted by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. In 1825, his house and large library were destroyed by fire. Of his talmudic writings, preserved by his descendants, almost nothing was published. A catalogue of his second library is preserved in Ms. Heidenheim 206, in the Central Library of Zürich.