Physical Description

Detail Description

Only edition of these halachic novellae on the Tur and Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat by R. Judah ben Joseph Kahana. Published posthumously, the title-page informs that R. Kahana served as Rav in Sighet. There is an introduction from R. Samuel Ginletzer, grandson and son-in-law of the author, who arranged Terumat ha-Keri followed by a lengthier introduction from R. Kahana. The detailed text follows. Terumat ha-keri, was first published posthumously in 1858, compiled from notes on the halakhic codes Tur and Shulḥan Arukh

R. Judah ben Joseph Kahana (ca. 1740–1819) was a rabbi and author. Born in Kalisz (in what was to become Galicia), R. Kahana was the eldest of four sons of R. Joseph ha-Kohen, who traced his lineage to the seventeenth-century d the rabbi R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (hence, some members of the family were called Kahana-Heller). R. Kahana at first shunned the rabbinate, leasing a village inn near Kalisz. Unsuccessful as an innkeeper, he became a private tutor to advanced students of wealthy families in Lwów, where he befriended a fellow tutor, R. Joseph Te’omim, later the rabbi of Frankfurt an der Oder and the author of the Peri megadim. R. Kahana moved to Hungary and served successively in a number of rabbinical posts: as rabbinical judge in Munkács; as rabbi of Nagyszöllös and Ugocsa county by 1796; and finally, as rabbi of Máramarossziget (Sziget; Rom., Sighet) from 1802 until his death in 1819. At the time, there were few rabbis functioning in the northeastern parts of Hungary. When R. Kahana became the rabbi of Sziget, the second to serve in the post, the position had been vacant for nearly 30 years. R. Kahana’s presence as a distinguished halakhic authority served to bolster the trend toward a thickening of traditional communal institutions in the region. A measure of his status can be gauged by the high esteem in which R. Mosheh Schreiber of Pressburg (Ḥatam Sofer) held him. When a bitter dispute arose in 1816 over the competence of the Transylvanian chief rabbi, the latter was ordered by Ḥatam Sofer to appear before “his beloved friend, the famous great gaon, Rabbi Judah Kahana”—unusually lavish praise from one who was quite sparing in showering the honorific gaon on contemporaries. R. Kahana’s numerous descendants produced many prominent rabbinical and lay leaders and formed a veritable clan in Sziget and throughout Máramaros county, often clashing with the Teitelbaum (Satmar) dynasty.

R. Kahana's brother in law was the author of the Kezot.

Hebrew Description

סובב ... על טור וש"ע חושן משפט. מלוקט ומקובץ מכתבי קודש אשר הניח אחריו ... מו"ה יהודא כהנא זצלה"ה אב"ד דק"ק סיגעט ... סביב לו הגהות וחידושים ... מאת חתן נכד המחבר ... מו"ה יודא מאדערן נ"י ... בק"ק סיגעט ...

דף [2], א: הקדמת המסדר, ר' שמואל גינטצלער, חתן נכד המחבר.

Reference

BE tav 2034: Yivo Ency.; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000127273