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On the laws of taking hold (grasping, seizing), damages, and the Talmudic term teiku, referring to unresolved issues, by R. Shabbetai ben Meir ha-Kohen (Shakh). Shakh is best known for his monumental Siftei Kohen commentary and halakhic novellae on Shulhan Arukh. The title page of this edition, with an ornate oriental title page and spare text, states that it was written by Shabbetai Katz, author of Siftei Kohen, and that it is was brought top press by the owner of the press, Joseph Molcho. It is dated with the verse “For the priest’s lips should guard knowledge” (Malachi 2:7). Shakh entitled the work Tokfu Kohen because the source of these dinim is from the tokfo Kohen (Bava Mezia 6b). The text is in a single column in rabbinic letters with accompanying marginalia. At the end of the volume is an index. The contents are not merely a discussion of instances of tokfo and teiku in the Talmud but also of the ongoing dialogue by later sages on the halakhic value of taking hold úôéñä in establishing possession. Parenthetically, teiku, of which there are three hundred fifteen instances in the Babylonian Talmud – but none in the Jerusalem Talmud - concerns questions that were addressed but no final conclusion could be reached. Teiku represents the conclusion of discussion. The origin of the word, according to popular usage, is from, Tishbi yetarez kushyot ve-ibbayot, that is, Elijah, the Tishbi, will resolve these questions and unanswered problems.
R. Shabbetai ben Meir ha-Kohen’s (Shakh, 1621–1662) father, realizing that his son was a prodigy, sent him to Tykocin to study under R. Joshua Hoeschel (Meginnei Shelomo, 1578-1648), whom Shakh followed to Cracow. Returning to Lita, Shakh married a granddaughter of R. Moses Isserles (Rema). Due to his great erudition and despite his young age, Shakh was appointed a dayyan in the Vilna bet din of R. Moses Lima (Helkat Mehokek, c. 1605–1658, see below, 1670). During the Cossack massacres of 1655, Shakh was forced to flee Vilna, eventually reaching Holesov in Moravia, his final residence, serving as rabbi there for the rest of his life. |
