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 ...

Yehudah Yerucham Fishel Perlow or Perla (1846–1934) was a Polish

halakhist ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

, best known for his commentary on

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

's enumeration of the

613 commandments According to Jewish tradition, the Torah contains 613 commandments (). Although the number 613 is mentioned in the Talmud, its real significance increased in later medieval rabbinic literature, including many works listing or arranged by the . Th ...

Biography

He was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

.כרטיס נפטר:הרב ירוחם פישל פרלה
/ref> Around the age of 15 he went to

Łomża Łomża () is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Łomża County and has been the se ...

to study under Yehoshua Leib Diskin. Later he studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva and was a leading student of Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin. ירוחם פישל פרלא
/ref> Later he moved to Brest and studied under

Chaim Soloveitchik Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (Yiddish: חיים סאָלאָווייטשיק, ), also known as Chaim Brisker (1853 – 30 July 1918), was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the Brisker method of Talmudic study within Judaism ...

. He was wealthy, owning a store managed by his wife, and thus refused offers to serve as rabbi of

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

and

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

in order to focus on his studies. He possessed one of the largest libraries in Poland at the time. Between 1913 and 1917 his commentary on Saadia's enumeration of the commandments was published. The commentary was reportedly the work of 40 years. Saadia had written a

piyyut A piyyuṭ (plural piyyuṭim, ; from ) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Most piyyuṭim are in Mishnaic Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, and most follow some p ...

enumerating the commandments in a concise manner. Perlow's commentary, in contrast, was originally published in three volumes totalling 1600 pages, and more recently in 7 volumes.Machon Hamaor, 2011 It thoroughly examines Saadia's choice of words in the piyyut, and deduces from this Saadia's understanding of each mitzvah, and the halachic consequences that result. Many of the topics covered had not been previously covered systematically in Torah literature, or else Perlow was able to supply new approaches to the subjects. As an example, Saadia's mention of the commandment of

tzitzit ''Tzitzit'' ( ''ṣīṣīṯ'', ; plural ''ṣīṣiyyōṯ'', Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazi: '; and Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan: ') are specially knotted ritual Fringe (trim), fringes, or tassels, worn in antiquity by Israelites and today by o ...

is just three words long: בכנפיך ציצית נצח. Perlow examines the third word, meaning "forever", perhaps suggesting that Saadia considered ''tzitzit'' obligatory even at night. Perlow concluded, instead, that Saadia meant that ''tzitzit'' is obligatory in every generation, despite the absence of techelet. This conclusion leads Perlow to a 20-page discussion of how it is permitted to wear four-corner garments in the absence of ''techelet'', and from there to a discussion of whether a person is permitted to cause himself to enter a situation where he will be obligated but unable to perform a commandment, complete with examples from 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 ...

and

rishonim ''Rishonim'' (; ; sing. , ''Rishon'') were the leading rabbis and ''posek, poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (, "Set Table", a common printed code of Jewis ...

. Perlow was widowed around 1923, and with his children already living far from Warsaw he was left alone. His students convinced him to move to the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

, and in 1926 he moved to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. He died on Thursday night, Rosh Hodesh Adar, in 1934.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlow, Yerucham Fishel 1846 births 1934 deaths 19th-century Polish rabbis Polish Orthodox rabbis Rabbis from Warsaw Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Polish rabbis