text: Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kremer, (Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן‎) known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון) or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym HaGra ("HaGaon Rabbenu Eliyahu") or Elijah Ben Solomon, (Vilnius April 23, 1720 – Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of mitnagdic (non-hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries.