Yehoshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk (1555 – 29 March 1614) 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 ...

and

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 ...

ist, best known as the author of the ''Drisha'' and ''Prisha'' commentaries on the ''

Arba'ah Turim ''Arba'ah Turim'' (), often called simply the ''Tur'', is an important Halakha#Codes of Jewish law, Halakhic code composed by Yaakov ben Asher (Cologne, 1270 – Toledo, Spain c. 1340, also referred to as ''Ba'al Ha-Turim''). The four-part stru ...

'' as well as ''Sefer Me'irat Enayim'' (סמ"ע) on ''

Shulkhan Arukh The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in V ...

''. His name also occurs as the Hebrew

acronyms An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

רפ"כ ("''RaFaC''") ("''Rabbi Falk Cohen''"), מהרו"כ ("Ma-HaRWaC") ("''Morenu ha-Rav Walk Cohen''"), and מהר"י כ"ץ (MaHaRY KTz ''Morenu ha-Rav Joshua Katz).''

Biography

He was a pupil of his relative

Moses Isserles Moses Isserles (; ; 22 February 1530 / 25 Adar I 5290 – 11 May 1572 / 18 Iyar 5332), also known by the acronym Rema, was an eminent Polish Ashkenazi rabbi, talmudist, and '' posek'' (expert in Jewish law). He is considered the "Maimonides o ...

and of Solomon Luria, and became the head of the

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. Many celebrated rabbis were his pupils, among them being Joshua Höschel ben Joseph of

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 ...

, the author of ''Maginei Shlomo''. Falk was a great authority on rabbinical matters. At the meeting of the

Council of Four Lands The Council of Four Lands (, ''Va'ad Arba' Aratzot'', ) was the central body of Jewish authority in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the second half of the 16th century to 1764, located in Lublin. The Council's first law is recorded as h ...

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 ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

which occasioned lengthy discussions among the celebrated rabbis of the time, including

Meir Lublin Meir Lublin or Meir ben Gedalia (1558 – 1616) was a Polish rabbi, Talmudist and Posek ("decisor of Jewish law"). He is well known for his commentary on the Talmud, ''Meir Einai Chachamim''. He is also referred to as MaHaRam (Hebrew acronym: "O ...

and Mordecai Yoffe.see "''She'elot uTeshuvot MaHaRaM''", Nos. 122 et seq. Also She'elot UTshuvot Mas'eit Binyamin 75 et seq. He was

Rosh Yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

and served on the

. 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 In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ch ...

, Rabbi

Jacob ben Asher Jacob ben Asher (c. 1270–1340), also known as Ba'al ha-Turim as well as Yaakov ben haRosh, was an influential Medieval rabbinic authority. He is often referred to as the Ba'al ha-Turim ("Author of the ''Turim''"), after his main work, the ''A ...

's ''Tur'' and Rabbi

Joseph Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its ...

's ''

''. He spent his early life composing extensive analytical commentaries on the

, which were later lost in a fire. Falk died at

, in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

on 29 March 1614.

Note on the name "Joshua Falk"

Until the early 19th century, the names of most

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s consisted of a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

first name, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

second name, the patronymic "ben ... " (son of ...) and, if an upper one, the class - HaCohen (or "Katz") or HaLevy. 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 A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

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 Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

: just as a falcon circles its prey, so

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

circled and explored the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

before swooping down on it. Some derive "Valk" from an acronym of Leviticus 19:18: "''ve'ahavta lere'akha kamokha''" - "Love thy neighbor as thyself"). The name Falk was thus not a

family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

until the 19th century, when it was adopted by those whose immediate

ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

s had "Falk" as a second name.

Encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

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 commentary on the '' Tur'', composed of the ''Perishah'', a straightforward explanation, and the ''Derishah'', deeper discussions on specific problems. The ''Perishah'' clarifies the rulings of the ''Tur'', by tracing them to their sources in the

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 ...

''. The ''Derishah ''is devoted to extensive analysis and comparison of the various interpretations and decisions proposed by various Talmudic authorities. Rabbi Falk also wrote: * ''Sefer Me'irat Einayim'', a commentary to the ''

Choshen Mishpat ''Choshen Mishpat'' (Hebrew: חושן משפט) 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 (Jewish law), Arba'ah Turim. This section treats a ...

'' section of the ''

'', containing all the decisions of the ''

'', with an index of their sources. * ''Sefer ha-Hosafah'', a supplement to the ''Darhkei Mosheh'' of

, printed with the ''

'', Dyhernfurth, 1796; * ''Kontres 'al Diney Ribbit'', a discourse on the laws relating to the prohibition of

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

, followed by some ''takkanot'' (ordinances by the Rabbis), Sulzbach, 1692; * Novellae on Talmudic treatises.

References

* Its bibliography: * Azulai, ''Shem ha-Gedolim,'' i.50, 70; *

Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (October 25, 1742 in Castelnuovo Nigra, Piedmont – March 23, 1831 in Parma) was an Italian Christian Hebraist. He studied in Ivrea and Turin. In October 1769, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the U ...

, ''Dizionario,'' i.116; * Solomon Buber, ''Toledot Anshe Shem,'' No. 197.

External links

Beit Israel ("Perishah" and "Derishah")
Prof. Eliezer Segal
Joshua Ben Alexander Ha-Kohen
jewishencyclopedia.com

jewishgen.org * Meir Wunder,
Yehoshu‘a ben Aleksander ha-Kohen
', in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. {{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Joshua 17th-century Polish rabbis 16th-century Polish rabbis 16th-century Polish writers 16th-century Polish male writers Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) 1555 births 1614 deaths Kohanim writers of Rabbinic literature Authors of books on Jewish law