10 Most Influential People in History

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Motek

Sun, Jan 28 2007, 10:20 pm

Let's see if we can come up with the 10 most influential people in history.

I think Moshe Rabeinu and l'havdil Yoshke and Mohammed would be on the list.

Also Hitler yimach shemo.

Not sure which Russian leader or leaders.

who else?

shoy18

Sun, Jan 28 2007, 10:55 pm

thats a VERY large time frame, why not narrow it down

Tefila

Sun, Jan 28 2007, 11:29 pm

The Baal Shem tov, Sara Schneira, Rebbetzin Chana..............You LOL

purplegirl

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 4:28 am

Gutenberg - printing press
Galileo/Newton/Einstein
Newcomen (?) - who started the industrial revolution
Fleming - penicillin

I think we would need to name someone in each of the main fields that affect our world.

shalhevet

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 5:03 am

Certainly the one person who had the most influence on history of all mankind is Avraham Avinu.

I will try and make a list of the ten people who had the most influence on us as Jews today, positively.
1.Avraham Avinu
2.Yitzchak Avinu
3.Ya'akov Avinu
4.Moshe Rabbeinu
5.Rabbi Akiva (who was the 'father' of transmitting the Oral Torah)
6.Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai (who saved the study of Torah after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash)
7.Rabbi Yehoshua ben Gamla (who instituted mandatory education for all Jewish children)
8.Rebbi - Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi - who compiled the Mishna
9.Rav Ashi - who compiled the gemorra
10. Rashi (who made the Torah and gemorra accessible)

OK, I ran out of numbers, but I would also add the Rambam, Rav Yosef Karo (the author of the Beis Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch), the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, the Chofetz Chaim, Sarah Shneirer and those who revived the Torah world after the Shoah (Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Moshe Feinstein, the Ponevisher Rav, the Chazon Ish, the Sanzer Rebbe and the Brisker Rov - apologies for those I've forgotten)

On the evil side, lhavdil elef alfei havdalot:
1.Pharoah yemach shemo vzichro
2.Nebucadnezzar (who is responsible for the 10 lost tribes and 1st Temple destruction) yemach shemo vzichro
3.Titus (2nd temple) yemach shemo vzichro
4. King Richard the Lionheart (crusades) yemach shemo vzichro
5. Chelmaniski yemach shemo vzichro
6. Stalin (responsible for the spiritual loss of millions of Jews) yemach shemo vzichro
7. Hitler yemach shemo vzichro

Raisin

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 6:11 am

10 is much too few but...

Avraham
Moshe
Yoshke
Mohammed (or his Jewish concubine...)
Rambam
Hitler
Marx
Einstein
Freud
The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Ruchel

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 8:51 am

we should also make a list of the 10 most influencial women!

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 9:14 am

1. Rosa Parks (equalities for blacks)
2. Rav Kook (treating your brother as your brother)
3. Hitler (oy, that one is a very negative one - no need to explain)
4. Yaakov Aveinu (he started the jewish nation - what more do I have to say?)
5. Sara Schneirer (gosh, without her, none of us would have gone as far as we did in yeshivot)
6. Hannah (she taught us how to daven with true kavana)
7. Clara Barton (she was the organizer of the red cross)
8. Eliezer Ben Yehuda (he made the hebrew language what it is today:>)
9. Aryeh Levine (he was the meaning of compasion - what a thing to learn)
10. Schottenstein (they made it possible for SOOOO many ppl to learn gemara who were not able to without the english help)

Mevater

Mon, Jan 29 2007, 11:21 am

I'd like to throw in Alexander Graham Bell for inventing every woman's "best" friend.

Almost without doubt, the Lashon Hara that is spoken, that destroys and kills, and the Bitul Zman all facilitated by that invention, is mind boggling.

OTOH, as a fire that destroys AND has the ability to warm as well, where would we be without that very same invention, when we need to reach Hatzalah or the Police?

He definitely changed lives. If he doesn't rate as top ten, he's certainly close.

Motek

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 2:32 pm

Some of the names listed above were of very important people but not THE most influential people in history!

Before I looked back at this thread I thought of adding Avrohom Avinu and well, Adam Ha'Rishon - quite an impact he had on history! And Alexander the Great and Einstein.

Then I went to google and found lists of the most influential people. Some we've mentioned, others, like Darwin, Napoleon, Pasteur, Christopher Columbus, Edison, Henry Ford (assembly line), Gorbachev, we didn't.

and if we include Hitler, then Churchill and Roosevelt should be included too

Take a look:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-128......aspx

yoyosma

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 2:43 pm

All the anti feminists here will scream at me, but Golda Meir changed a lot for women and Israel and history in general.

withhumor

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 2:46 pm

Freud
Mozart
Me
Paul Revere
Patrick Henry
Mother Theresa
Nelson Mandela
The Maya & Aztec people, for discovering chocolate

Oy, my list is long.

shalhevet

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 2:55 pm

Motek wrote:

Sorry, but all these lists are (not that I bothered looking) are just people's opinions. There are no 'right' answers.

Darwin's theories have been disproved.

I still hold that Avraham Avinu was the one person with the greatest influence on history. He 'rediscovered' Hashem and essentially caused the monetheism of billions and billions of people throughout history. Don't forget that the Xians and Moslems are also descended from him and are Monotheistic because of it.

Motek

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 5:57 pm

shalhevet wrote:

Sorry, but all these lists are (not that I bothered looking) are just people's opinions. There are no 'right' answers.

Did anybody say there were? Confused

Quote:

Darwin's theories have been disproved.

So has fascism and Hitler been eliminated, so?

Evolution continues to be something that millions (billions?) of people believe, unfortunately, and therefore Darwin is one of the most influential people in history, I think.

Quote:

I still hold that Avraham Avinu was the one person with the greatest influence on history. He 'rediscovered' Hashem and essentially caused the monetheism of billions and billions of people throughout history. Don't forget that the Xians and Moslems are also descended from him and are Monotheistic because of it.

in a close race with Adam Wink

lubcoralsprings

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 6:00 pm

The Lubavitcher Rebbe

shalhevet

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 6:01 pm

Motek wrote:

Quote:

Darwin's theories have been disproved.

Darwin only had an influence on what people think. Therefore if people have stopped thinking like that he no longer has an influence.

Hitler, yemach shmo, unfortunately changed the face of history so it is irrelevant if no-one (halevai) believes in fascism any more.

Motek

Sun, Feb 04 2007, 7:02 pm

shalhevet wrote:

Darwin only had an influence on what people think. Therefore if people have stopped thinking like that he no longer has an influence.

Are you aware of the fact that schools all over the world, including Israel, teach evolution and that many if not most scientists still espouse it?

And I don't understand what you mean anyway - the most influential people are those who had the greatest impact. Titus and the other reshaim you mentioned earlier no longer have an influence either but you included them because they were influential!

sarahd

Mon, Feb 05 2007, 6:28 am

I agree with Motek. Even if we stipulate that no one believes in Darwin's theory anymore, the theory still opened the door to the acceptibility of believing in a world without a Creator (ch"v). The theory itself may have been discredited; not so the mindset.

purplegirl

Mon, Feb 05 2007, 7:19 am

I can see myself getting into trouble here, but...

lubcoralsprings wrote:

The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Can we really say that he influenced history? Definitely he changed the map of the Jewish world over that last few decades, but history is quite a big picture...

and

withhumor wrote:

Freud
Mozart
Me
Paul Revere
Patrick Henry
Mother Theresa
Nelson Mandela
The Maya & Aztec people, for discovering chocolate

I noticed that !!! Mr. Green

You is funny, honey! Rolling Laughter

TzenaRena

Mon, Feb 05 2007, 8:26 am

purplegirl wrote:

I can see myself getting into trouble here, but...

lubcoralsprings wrote:

The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Can we really say that he influenced history? Definitely he changed the map of the Jewish world over that last few decades, but history is quite a big picture...

He changed the course of history, even if/as that history is happening right now.

I will add: Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov.

Last edited by TzenaRena on Mon, Feb 05 2007, 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

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