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Novellae on tractates Bava Kamma, Bava Mezia, and Bava Batra by R. Abraham Joshua ben Jacob Heschel, one of the great geonim of Poland and the teacher of many of the leading halakhic authorities in the seventeenth century. The attractive title page has an architectural frame almost identical to the title page of a miniature edition of tractate Sukkah 1722 lacking the place of printing but normally attributed to Frankfort a. Oder and/or Berlin, this volume being larger and having additional border decorations. Their likeness and the clear identification of the place of printing and name of the printer brings into question the attribution of the tractate and makes this volume of bibliographic importance in addition to its inherent value. Friedberg, in the Bet Eked Sefarim identifies this volume as a Frankfort am. Main imprint. On the verso of the title page is an approbation from R. Jacob Kohen Paperish of Prague, followed by a second more textual title page. Next is a brief introduction from Sefer Toldos Aharon, that is, R. Aaron of Karmana, and then R. Heschel’s introduction. The approbation, second title page, and Toldos Aharon introduction all have decorative tail-pieces at the bottom, as does the final page.
R. Abraham Joshua ben Jacob Heschel (d. 1664) was a talmudic scholar of Lithuania and Poland. His father was rabbi of the community of Brest-Litovsk and head of its yeshivah, where R. Abraham Joshua became a teacher as a young man. In 1630 his father was appointed rabbi of Lublin and head of the yeshivah, where R. Abraham Joshua again assisted him. After his father's death in 1644, he succeeded him as head of the yeshivah. Some scholars claim that he also inherited the rabbinic position, others that he became rabbi of Lublin only in 1650 after the death of Naphtali Katz, who was his father's successor. In 1654, Abraham Joshua became rabbi and head of the yeshivah of Cracow, succeeding the famous R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller. Heschel was a wealthy man, of outstanding piety, and his reputation as a teacher attracted numerous students. A number of them became famous in their own right, among them R. Shabbetai b. Meir ha-Kohen, R. Aaron Samuel Koidanover, R. Gershon Ashkenazi, and Hillel of Brest Litovsk. His teaching methods were based on dialectics (pilpul). Heschel's renown as a legal authority spread far and questions were addressed to him from all parts of Europe. Although in many cases he was reluctant to give decisions, when he did, they were brief, logical, and to the point. During the Chmielnicki persecutions many cases of agunot came before him, and Heschel exercised considerable leniency in dealing with them. In one such instance, involving a certain Jacob (grandfather of R. Jacob Emden), who was missing after an attack on Vilna, witnesses gave evidence that he had been killed by the Cossacks, and Heschel decided that the wife could remarry; six months later Jacob returned, whereupon Heschel resolved that he would refrain in the future from giving decisions in such matters (see Megillat Sefer by Jacob Emden (1897), 7; and J.M. Zunz, Ir ha-Zedek (1874), 111). He was commissioned by the communities of Poland to solicit aid from the wealthy Jewish communities of Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia for the victims of the Chmielnicki massacres. Heschel was received everywhere with great respect, and his mission was crowned with success. He was supposedly even received by the emperor of Austria who accorded him great honor. Heschel died in Cracow.
His commentaries on the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol of R. Moses of Coucy were published in its Kapost edition in 1807; they are short and logical, and reveal a fine command of the Hebrew language. R. Aaron Kelniker, a student of Heschel's in Lublin, published a work, Toledot Aharon (Lublin, 1682), containing some of his teacher's novellae on Bava Kamma, Bava Mezia, and Bava Batra, compiled from lecture notes. Later editions were entitled Hiddushei Halakhot (Offenbach, 1723; etc.). In the preface, Kelniker briefly described the famous yeshivah of Lublin during his period of studies there under Heschel. The Hanukkat ha-Torah of R. E.J. Ersohn (1900) contains 600 of Heschel's homilies on the Bible, gathered from different rabbinic sources of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Events connected with Heschel and his time are recorded by the author in the appendix, Kunteres Aharon, which, although containing some legends, also includes much material of historical value. Some of R. Heschel's responsa are to be found in works of his contemporaries. His novellae and a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh are still in manuscript (see Kunteres Aharon, 103). |
