[Avodah] Alleged story about the SM"A

[Richard Wolpoe]

On 10/30/07, Noah Witty <nwitty at optonline.net> wrote:
>
> There is "famous" story (I  have heard it so it's "famous" . . . about
> the SM"A who was involved in a din torah, which he lost despite his
> acumen in Choshen Mishpat.  The dayanim explained that they actually
> paskened like the SM"A's own peirush on the matter, while the SM"A had,
> in his own behalf, taken the position of the Sha"Ch, who disagrees with
> the SM"A's peirush. The story is usualy conveyed as a moralality tale
> about the blinding effect of self-interest (negi'os).  (On the topic of
> negi'os in this week's parsha, see Michtav May-Eliyahu, 2:202-203 and
> 5:299-300.)
>
> QUERY:  1)    Does anyone have a printed source for this story? If the
> answer is Krohn, pleas identify the book, and possibly a printed source
> earlier than Rav Shwadron zt"l.
>                 2)   Anyone have any idea what the din torah was about?
> and what halacha was at issue?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Noach Witty
> _______________________________________________
>


wikipedia:
*Joshua Falk* (Hebrew <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language>: יהושע
בן אלקסנדר פאלק)(also: *Joshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk*)
(1555<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1555>-
1614 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1614>) was a Polish
Halakhist<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halakha>and
Talmudist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud>, best known as the author of
the *Beit Yisrael* commentary on the *Arba'ah
Turim<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arba%27ah_Turim>
* as well as *Sefer Me'irat Enayim* (סמ"ע) on *Shulkhan
Arukh<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulkhan_Arukh>
*. His name also occurs as the Hebrew
acronym<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym>"
*RaFaK*" ("*R[abbi]] Falk Kohen*") and "*Ma-HaRWaK*" ("*Morenu ha-Rab Walk
Kohen*").


*Shabbatai ben Meir ha-Kohen* (1621-1662) was a noted 17th Century
talmudist<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmudist>and
halakhist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halakhist>. He became known as *
Shakh,* which is an abbreviation of his most important work, *Sifsei
ha-kohen* (literally *Lips of the Priest*), and his rulings were considered
authoritative by later halakhists.

He was born in Vilna <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius> in 1621 and died
at Holleschau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holleschau> on the 1st of
Adar<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adar>(Rishon), 1662. In 1633 he
entered the
yeshivah <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivah> of R. Yehoshua
Heschel<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_H%C3%B6schel_ben_Joseph>b.
Yosef at
Tykotzin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tykotzin>, studying later at
Cracow<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracow>and
Lublin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lublin> and becoming a pupil of R. Heschel
b. Yaakov of Cracow<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heschel_b._Yaakov_of_Cracow&action=edit>(the
"Rebbe Reb Heschel"). Returning to
Vilna <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna>, he married the daughter of
R. Shimon
Wolf b. Isaac Benimus<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shimon_Wolf_b._Isaac_Benimus&action=edit>,
and shortly after was appointed one of the assistants of R. Moshe Lima b.
Isaac<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moshe_Lima_b._Isaac&action=edit>,
author of *Chelkat
Mechokek<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chelkat_Mechokek&action=edit>
.* In 1646 he went to Cracow, and in the following year published his *Sifte
Kohen,* or *Shakh,* commentary on *Shulchan Arukh* *Yoreh
De'ah<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoreh_De%27ah>
,* a work that was approved by eighteen of the greatest scholars of that
generation. In 1648 the communities of Russian
Poland<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Poland>were devastated by
Chmielnicki <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmielnicki>, Shabbetai ha-Kohen
being among the sufferers. About this time he published his *Megillah
Afah.*After a short stay at
Prague <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague>, where he had sought refuge
from the Cossack <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossack> uprising, he was
called to the rabbinate of
Dresin<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dresin&action=edit>,
and later to that of Holleschau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holleschau>,
where he gained the intimate friendship of Magister Valentini Vidrich of
Leipzig <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipzig>.

==================================================================

Since the Sma was dead 7 years before the Shach was born it would take
someone from the extreme NON-HISTORICAL school to buy into the above story!




-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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