Joshua Falk
Encyclopedia
- Drisha redirects here. For the center for advanced TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic studies for women, see the Drisha InstituteDrisha InstituteThe Drisha Institute for Jewish Education is a center for advanced Jewish studies which caters specifically to women. The institute is located on the Upper West Side of New York City....
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Joshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk (1555 – 1614) was a Polish Halakhist
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ist, best known as the author of the Beit Yisrael commentary on the Arba'ah Turim
Arba'ah Turim
Arba'ah Turim , often called simply the Tur, is an important Halakhic code, composed by Yaakov ben Asher...
as well as Sefer Me'irat Enayim (סמ"ע) on Shulkhan Arukh. His name also occurs as the Hebrew acronym רפ"כ ("RaFaC") ("Rabbi Falk Cohen" and מהרו"כ ("Ma-HaRWaC") ("Morenu ha-Rab Walk Cohen").
Biography
He was a pupil of his relative Moses IsserlesMoses Isserles
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
and of Solomon Luria
Solomon Luria
Solomon Luria was one of the great Ashkenazic poskim and teachers of his time. He is known for his work of Halakha, Yam Shel Shlomo, and his Talmudic commentary Chochmat Shlomo...
, and became the head of the yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
of Lemberg. Many celebrated rabbis were his pupils, among them being Joshua Höschel ben Joseph
Joshua Höschel ben Joseph
Joshua Höschel ben Joseph was a Polish rabbi born in Vilnius, Lithuania about 1578 and died in Cracow on August 16, 1648. In his boyhood, he journeyed to Przemyśl, Red Ruthenia, to study the Talmud under Rabbi Samuel ben Phoebus of Cracow. He returned to his native country, and continued his...
of Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, the author of "Maginne Shelomoh".
Falk was a great authority on rabbinical matters. At the meeting of the Council of Four Lands
Council of Four Lands
The Council of Four Lands in Lublin, Poland was the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764. Seventy delegates from local kehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community...
in 1607, during the Kremenetz fair, many of his proposals were approved.
In 1611 Falk and Enoch Hendel ben Shemariah issued a bill of divorce at Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
which occasioned lengthy discussions among the celebrated rabbis of the time, including Meir Lublin
Meir Lublin
Meir Lublin or Meir ben Gedalia was a Polish rabbi, Talmudist and Posek . He is well known for his commentary on the Talmud, Meir Einai Chachamim. He is also referred to as Maharam .-Biography:Maharam was born in Lublin, Poland...
and Mordecai Yoffe
Mordecai Yoffe
Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe was a Rabbi, Rosh yeshiva and posek. He is best known as author of Levush Malkhut, a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the customs of the Jews of Eastern Europe...
(see "She'elot u-Teshubot MaHaRaM", Nos. 123 et seq.).
He was Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
in Lemberg and served on the Council of Four Lands
Council of Four Lands
The Council of Four Lands in Lublin, Poland was the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764. Seventy delegates from local kehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community...
.
Falk was opposed to the reliance on law codes to the exclusion of study of the original sources. Towards this end he composed a series of commentaries on the most influential codes, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher, also known as Ba'al ha-Turimas well as Rabbi Yaakov ben Raash , was likely born in Cologne, Germany c.1269 and likely died in Toledo, Spain c.1343....
's Tur
Arba'ah Turim
Arba'ah Turim , often called simply the Tur, is an important Halakhic code, composed by Yaakov ben Asher...
and Rabbi Joseph Karo's Shulkhan Arukh. He spent his early life composing extensive analytical commentaries on the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, which were later lost in a fire.
Falk died at Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) March 29, 1614.
Note on the name "Joshua Falk"
Until the early 19th century, the names of most Central EuropeCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
an Jews consisted of a Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
first name, a German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
second name, the patronymic "ben ... " (son of ...) and, if an upper one, the class - HaCohen (or "Katz") or HaLevy
Levite
In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance"...
. The German name was chosen to fit the Hebrew one: thus "Zvi" or "Naftali" went with "Hirsch", and "Zev" or "Binjamin" with "Wolf". Those whose given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
was Yehoshua, Josua, or Joshua had the second name of Falk, Valk, Walk, Wallik or Wallich. (One theory is that "Falk", here, derives from the German for falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
: just as a falcon circles its prey, so Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
circled and explored the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
before swooping down on it. Some derive "Valk" from an acronym of Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
19:18: "ve'ahavta lere'akha kamokha" - "Love thy neighbor as thyself"). The name Falk was thus not a family name until the 19th century, when it was adopted by those whose immediate ancestor
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....
s had "Falk" as a second name. Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
s will therefore have several entries under "Falk", where "Falk", strictly, is not a surname. References to Rabbi Falk are therefore often via "Yehoshua Falk ben Alexander HaCohen" or "Joshua Falk ben Alexander Katz" or "Joshua Falk Katz".
Works
Beit Yisrael is a twin commentaryClose reading
Close reading describes, in literary criticism, the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they...
on the Tur
Arba'ah Turim
Arba'ah Turim , often called simply the Tur, is an important Halakhic code, composed by Yaakov ben Asher...
, composed of the Perishah, a straightforward explanation, and the Derishah, deeper discussions on specific problems. The Perishah clarifies the rulings
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
of the Tur, by tracing them to their sources in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and Rishonim
Rishonim
"Rishon" redirects here. For the preon model in particle physics, see Harari Rishon Model. For the Israeli town, see Rishon LeZion.Rishonim were the leading Rabbis and Poskim who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the Shulkhan Arukh and...
. The Derishah is devoted to extensive analysis and comparison of the various interpretations and decisions
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
proposed by various Talmudic authorities.
Rabbi Katz also wrote:
- Sefer Me'irat Einayim, a commentary to the Choshen MishpatChoshen MishpatChoshen Mishpat is the Hebrew for "Breastplate of Judgement". The term is associated with one of the four sections of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha , Arba'ah Turim. This section treats aspects of Jewish law pertinent to finance, torts, legal procedure and loans and interest in...
section of the Shulkhan Arukh, containing all the decisions of the RishonimRishonim"Rishon" redirects here. For the preon model in particle physics, see Harari Rishon Model. For the Israeli town, see Rishon LeZion.Rishonim were the leading Rabbis and Poskim who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the Shulkhan Arukh and...
, with an index of their sources. - Sefer ha-Hosafah a supplement to the Darhkei Mosheh of Moses IsserlesMoses IsserlesMoses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
, printed with the Choshen MishpatChoshen MishpatChoshen Mishpat is the Hebrew for "Breastplate of Judgement". The term is associated with one of the four sections of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha , Arba'ah Turim. This section treats aspects of Jewish law pertinent to finance, torts, legal procedure and loans and interest in...
, Dyhernfurth, 1796; - Kontres 'al Dine Ribbit, a discourse on the laws relating to the prohibition of usuryUsuryUsury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
, followed by some "takkanot" (ordinances by the Rabbis), SulzbachSulzbach- Germany :* Sulzbach-Rosenberg, a town in the district Amberg-Sulzbach, Bavaria* Sulzbach, Saarland, a town in the district of Saarbrücken, Saarland* Sulzbach, Hesse, a municipality in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hesse...
, 1692; - Novellae on Talmudic treatises.
External links
- Beit Israel ("Perishah" and "Derishah"), Prof. Eliezer Segal
- Joshua Ben Alexander Ha-Kohen, jewishencyclopedia.com
- History of Jewish family Names, jewishgen.org