Tomer Devorah ["The Palm Tree of Deborah": Kabbalistic ethics]

R. Bunem Eger of Halberstadt copy. The Eger Family were long established in the town of Halberstadt, Germany. Some confusion exists as various members of the family at times identified themselves by the surname "Guens" (including the most illustrious scion of the family, R. Akiva Eger [d.1837], who was wont to sign himself "Ginz"). It is thought that the original name was indeed "Gins" or "Ginsmann" and that the surname "Eger" came later. It appears that our "Bunem Eger of Halberstadt" was in fact Simcha Bunem Eger (d.1764), the great-grandfather of Rabbi Akiva Eger of Posen. (Simcha Bunem fathered Akiva Eger the Elder, author "Mishnath Rabbi Akiva" [d. 1758]; the latter's son Moses bore Akiva Eger the Younger, later Rabbi of Posen [d. 1837]). The "Akiva" signed on the title is presumably Akiva Eger the Elder, who inherited the book from his father Bunem. For the Eger Family Tree, see JE, Vol. V, pp. 51-52.