Yechiel Michel ben Eliezer ha-Kohen (; died 10 or 12 June 1648), also known as the Martyr of Nemirov, was a kabbalist and

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Nemirov Nemyriv ( ; ) is a historic city in Vinnytsia Oblast (province) in Ukraine, located in the historical region of Podolia Podolia or Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

who was murdered during the Cossacks' Uprising of 1648.

Biography

Yechiel Michel was the son of the gaon Rabbi Eliezer of Zlatschov. Said to know the entire

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

by heart, Yechiel was known for his mastery of

talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic, kabbalistic, and secular knowledge. Yechiel at first regarded the

Khmelnytsky Khmelnytskyi (, ) is a city in western Ukraine. Located on the Southern Bug, it serves as the administrative centre of Khmelnytskyi Oblast as well as Khmelnytskyi Raion within the oblast. With a population of Khmelnytskyi is the second-largest ...

persecutions as a presage of the coming

messianic era In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age () is the future eternal period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil (through mankind's own terms). Many believe that there will be s ...

. In a

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...

on the

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

before the

Cossack riots The Khmelnytsky pogroms were pogroms carried out against the Jews of modern Ukraine during the 1648 Khmelnytsky Uprising of the Cossacks and serfs led by Bogdan Khmelnytsky (or the "Hamil of Evil", as he was called by the Jews) against the Po ...

, he admonished members of the Jewish community to be

martyred A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloquial ...

rather than forcibly converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. When the hordes of Khmelnytsky, taking Nemirov, began the work of pillage and massacre, a Cossack concealed Yechiel, hoping that the latter would disclose where the Jews had hidden their wealth. Yechiel was found by a Ukrainian shoemaker and clubbed to death in the Jewish cemetery on 10 or 12 June 1648. He was mourned by Rabbis

Shabbatai HaKohen Shabbatai ben Meir HaKohen (; 1621–1662) was a talmudist and halakhist. He became known as the ''Shakh'' (), which is an abbreviation of his most important work, ''Siftei Kohen'' () (literally ''Lips of the Priest'') on the Shulchan Aruch. Bi ...

and

Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller Rabbi Gershon Shaul Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Nathan ha-Levi Heller (c. 157919 August 1654), was a Bohemian rabbi and Talmudist, best known for writing a commentary on the Mishnah called the ''Tosefet Yom-Tov'' (1614–1617). Heller was one of the majo ...

in their elegies for the victims of the Khmelnytsky massacres of 1648–1649. Yechiel was the author of a work entitled ''Shivrei luḥot'' ('Fragments of the Tablets'), containing

kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

on several Sabbatic sections and the weekly

Torah reading Torah reading (; ') is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll (or scrolls) from the Torah ark, chanting the ap ...

s given in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. The work was published posthumously at Lublin in 1680 by Yechiel's nephew, whose introduction includes Jewish accounts of the Cossacks' Uprising. A new edition of the work was published by Rabbi Abraham Baruch Alter Rosenberg in 1913.

References

{{authority control Year of birth unknown 1648 deaths Bible commentators 17th-century Russian rabbis Jewish martyrs Kabbalists Khmelnytsky Uprising Kohanim writers of Rabbinic literature People from Nemyriv People murdered in Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox rabbis

Biography

See also

References