Rabbi Akiva Eiger (1761 - 1837 CE) was a distinguished Talmudic scholar, influential halachic authority, and beloved leader of European Jewry. His father’s last name was Gins but as an adult he took his mother’s name of Eiger. He wrote insightful notes in the margins of his copy of the Talmud, which were posthumously published in the margins of the now standard Vilna edition of the Talmud as the commentary Gilyon HaShas (גליון הש"ס) which means ‘margin of the Talmud’.
