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The Rama Earned Him His Doctorate from Yeshiva University

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The Rama Earned Him His Doctorate from Yeshiva University GIANTS OF TRADITION Asher Siev The second subject of our series on the "Giants of Tradition" is presented by Rabbi Asher Siev, whose thesis on the Rama earned him his doctorate from Yeshiva University. Rabbi Siev is spiritual leader of Congo Kehilath Israel in the Bronx, and is assistant professor of Bible and instructor in Hebrew grammar and literature at Yeshiva College. His book, The Rama, was published by Mosad Harav Kook in 1957. THE RAMA According to popular legend, Rabbi Mosheh Isserles lived thir thee years, durg which tie he composed thity three important works, died on the thi thrd day of the Orner (Lag B'Omer) in the year five thousand three hundred th thee, and in euogizg him thir thee outstanding praises were emphasized. Of these only the day of his passing is historically correct. The legend points neverteless to the fact that Rabbi Isserles captued the imagination of his people, and that many legends were woven around his life as they usually are around the lives and activities of all beloved and revered personalities. We are indebted to Rabbi Mosheh Isserles for having stadardized the German-Polish decisions and Mínhagim (custom) in matters of Jewish law and stamping them with the impress of authority. Moreover, by supplementing his Mapah ("Table Cloth") to the Shulchan Arukh ("Prepared Table," the standard code of Jewish law) of Rabbi Joseph Karo, he helped unite Sephardic and Ashkena- zic Jewry in the use of a single Code of Law, which was gradually accepted as the final authority in renderig legal decisions. YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD Rabbi Moses Isserles, known throughout Jewry as the Rama,l pro- foundly influenced the spirihial life of our people in the last four 1. Derived from the initials of his Hebrew name w' "0' ~ n~~ ~.::i'. 132 The Rama hundred years. Yet comparatively little is mown about his private life and experiences. We know that he was born and raied in a home of material afuence, piety, and scholarship. His father, Rabbi Israel, was a prominent merchant whose business transactions took him to distant lands and caused him to come in contact with non- Jews who respected his scholarship, industrousness, and piet. Be- ing learned in the Law, even nonM Jews sought enlightenment from him in difcult biblical passages.2 He was noted for generosity and beevolence, and was spoken of as Gaon and Chaver~ and alo as "the great ParnM." Upon the passing of his wife, Rabbi Israel built a synagogue in her memory, which later became promient as "the Rama Synagogue." However, the wooden strcture burnt down only four years after its erection and a stone building took its place, and remains standing to this day. Rabbi Mosheh Isserles was born about the year 1530 and was the most gifted of eight children. In hi early youth he seems to have studied at home, which was a meetig place for scholars and com- munalleaders. When he was a little older he was sent to the renowned Yeshivah of Rabbi Shalom Shakhna at Lublin. The latter, regarded as the greatest talmudic schol.ar of his day, exerted a profound in- fluence upon his young and gifted pupiL. At about the age of nieteen Rabbi Moshe married Golda, daugh- ter of his great teacher, Rabbi Shalom Shakha.3 With the aid of his influential father and father~in-law, he was then invited to assume the important position of Rabbi of Crakow, which he served with dedication and distincton for the rest of his life. It is there that he founded a Yeshivah which bece one of the most famous in Poland. A man of meas, he was able to supply his pupils with their maM terial needs, so that they could dedicate themselves to the study of Torah without worry or privation. His pupils speak often of the home of their master which was open to all. One of them grateflly ac- knowledges the fact that he grew up in the home of his revered teacher. Having himself studied Torah in the midst of abundance 2. Tarat ha-Olah, III, Chapter 82. 3. The Rama mentions only once the fact that his revered teacher was also hii; father-in-law (Darkei Mosheh, Yoreh Deah no, note 4). This strange phenomenon may be explained by the fact that his :fst wife died only a few years after their marriage and he was remarried shortly afterward to the sister of Rabbi Joseph Katz, his colleague at the Bet Din of Crakow. 133 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox J ewiYh Thought and free of worry for his material needs, he strove to provide similar- ly for his shidents. Among the hundreds of pupils attacted to his Yeshivah there were many who became the leading religious au- thorities of Ashkenazic Jewry, and they later helped establish their revered teacher as the Posek (decisor) for their communities, which embraced a significant portion of world Jewry of the day.4 THE DECISOR In addition to assuming the duties of Rabbi of the great com- munity of Crakow and to establishig and conducting a Yeshivah, the Rama became at the same time a member of the most important Bet Din (religious court) of the city, and at a tender age began the significant tasks of applyig his vast theoretical knowledge of the Law to the practical, everyday litigations brought before the court. In the ghettos of that time Jews enjoyed full autonomy, which enabled them to conduct their lives in accordance with the laws of the Torah. The Batei Din were caled upon to .deal with all problems arising in the complex life of a community. The responsa Hterahire of the period reveals the vast variety of problems brought before the religious authorities. Rabbi Is serIes, among other authori- ties of his day, was entrusted with the responsible task of applying his vast knowledge of Torah literatue to daily problems arising in his own community as well as in many distant lands. Despite his great reluctance to assume these difcult duties, it is in this sphere of applying the law to the everyday problems of life, that he disti- guished himseH, and after twenty two years as Dayan of Crakow becR-Yße the greatest Moreh Horaah (decisor) of Ashkenazic Jew to ths day. The success of the Rama as a Rosh Yeshivah and Dayan may be attibuted to his outstanding qualities of mind and heart. In hi we find profound humanity accompanied by great gifts of intellect; the 4. Suffce it to name such luminaries as: (a) Rabbi Mordecai Yaffe, philosoph- er, Kabbalist, author of the Levushim and leader in the Vaad Arba H a-aratzot; (b) Rabbi David Ganz; (c) Rabbi Joshua ha-Kohen Wolk, author of the Sema as well as other important works; (d) Rabbi Abraham Hurwitz, father of the Shelah, author of a commentary on the Eight Chapters of Maimonides and other works; (e) The well known gaon Maharam of Tiktin; (f) Rabbi Benjamin Aharon Salnik Ashkenazi, author of Masat Binyamin and other works. 134 The Ram haronious blending of wide human sympathes with crysta clarty of thought. Great erudition, keen analysis, and logical application enabled him to draw upon the original sources of the TalInud, Rish. onim and later authorities (Acharonim), and finally arrive at a de- cision which seemed inevitable in its presentation. In addition, Rabbi Isserles possessed in abiding respect for scholarship and scholars and, as a result, considered -and weighed carefully also the opinons of colleagues and contemporaries before renderg a decision. The reputation of the Rama as a Gaon and man of humlity and vire forced upon him the role of a Posek, often agaist his wil. When he eventualy decided to write down his decisions he did not intend to impose them upon others. Daily problems demanded so- lutions and he was courageous enough not only to offer them but also to record them as his definitive conclusions, while many of his contemporaries hesitated to do so. In rendering decisions Rabbi Isserles displays courage and reso- luteness, in face of severe criticism by some of his colleagues. In his Respona (no. 125) he explains the reasons for havig pedonned a wedding ceremony on Friday evening, about two hours after sunset, a decision which elicited much criticism and which occasioned a Takanah in Crakow to prohibit wedding ceremonies on Fridays. If it was necessary for a couple to get maried on Friday, the ceremony was thenceforth performed outside the gates of the city. In another responsum (no. 124) he tends to be lenent in ceai aspets in the matter of non-Jewish wie, and this attitude caused its deletion by the publishers of the Amsterdam edtion of his Respona. In the midst of a heated controversy with the M aharsll (Rabbi Solomon Luria), the Rama declares: "I say we must hesitate and refrain from adding to the number of terefot in matters of which our fathers were not aware, nor were they expressed by any author- itative author." Indeed, it was he who set the lenient decision with regard to the examination of the lungs of a slaughtered animal (miukh u-mishmush) which Sephardim, following the decsions of the Bet Y oseph, have not accepted. Moreover, the principle which permts a rabbi to pronounce a lenient decision, when the normal verdict would involve considerable monetar loss (H efsed M eru- hah), or in the case of the need for the honor of the Sabbath, though used by some of his contemporares, was given legal status of great import by Rabbi Isserles. Its significance lies in its pliability, leavig 135 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought it to the rabbi to determine "a considerable loss" when a poor man is affected by hi decision.
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