Editing Judah Loew ben Bezalel (section)

==Name==
[[File:Tombstone Decoration Maharal.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Lion of Judah]] on the Maharal's gravestone.]]
His name "Löw" or "Loew" is derived from the [[German language|German]] ''Löwe'', "[[lion]]" (cf. the [[Yiddish]] ''Leib'' of the same origin). It is a [[kinnui]], or substitute name, for the [[Hebrew]] name [[Judah (given name)|Judah]] or ''Yehuda'', as the Biblical character [[Judah (son of Jacob)|Judah]] was likened to a lion in {{Bibleverse|Genesis|49:9|HE}}.<ref>See [[Lion of Judah]]</ref> Lavi from that verse on Judah, is a lioness, hence his name Yehudah Lavi.  In Jewish naming tradition, the Hebrew name and the substitute name are often combined as a pair, as in this case in which the combined name is Judah Loew. When Loew wrote his classic supercommentary on [[Rashi]]'s [[Torah]] commentary, he entitled it ''Gur Aryeh al HaTorah'' in Hebrew, meaning "Young Lion [commenting] upon the Torah".

Loew's tomb in Prague is decorated with a heraldic shield with a lion with two intertwined tails (''queue fourchee''), alluding both to his first name and to [[Bohemia]], the arms of which has a two-tailed lion.