On 10/30/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Noah Witty</b> <<a href="mailto:nwitty@optonline.net">nwitty@optonline.net</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
There is "famous" story (I have heard it so it's "famous" . . . about<br>the SM"A who was involved in a din torah, which he lost despite his<br>acumen in Choshen Mishpat. The dayanim explained that they actually
<br>paskened like the SM"A's own peirush on the matter, while the SM"A had,<br>in his own behalf, taken the position of the Sha"Ch, who disagrees with<br>the SM"A's peirush. The story is usualy conveyed as a moralality tale
<br>about the blinding effect of self-interest (negi'os). (On the topic of<br>negi'os in this week's parsha, see Michtav May-Eliyahu, 2:202-203 and<br>5:299-300.)<br><br>QUERY: 1) Does anyone have a printed source for this story? If the
<br>answer is Krohn, pleas identify the book, and possibly a printed source<br>earlier than Rav Shwadron zt"l.<br> 2) Anyone have any idea what the din torah was about?<br>and what halacha was at issue?
<br><br>Thanks in advance.<br>Noach Witty<br>_______________________________________________<br></blockquote></div><br><br>wikipedia:<br><b>Joshua Falk</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language" title="Hebrew language">
Hebrew</a>: יהושע בן אלקסנדר פאלק)(also: <b>Joshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk</b>) (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1555" title="1555">1555</a> - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1614" title="1614">1614</a>) was a Polish
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halakha" title="Halakha">Halakhist</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud" title="Talmud">Talmudist</a>, best known as the author of the <i>Beit Yisrael</i> commentary on the
<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arba%27ah_Turim" title="Arba'ah Turim">Arba'ah Turim</a></i> as well as <i>Sefer Me'irat Enayim</i> (סמ"ע) on <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulkhan_Arukh" title="Shulkhan Arukh">
Shulkhan Arukh</a></i>. His name also occurs as the Hebrew <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym" title="Acronym">acronym</a> "<i><b>RaFaK</b></i>" ("<i>R[abbi]] Falk Kohen</i>") and "<i><b>
Ma-HaRWaK</b></i>" ("<i>Morenu ha-Rab Walk Kohen</i>").<br><br clear="all"><br><p><b>Shabbatai ben Meir ha-Kohen</b> (1621-1662) was a noted 17th Century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmudist" title="Talmudist">
talmudist</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halakhist" title="Halakhist">halakhist</a>. He became known as <i>Shakh,</i> which is an abbreviation of his most important work, <i>Sifsei ha-kohen</i> (literally <i>
Lips of the Priest</i>), and his rulings were considered authoritative by later halakhists.</p>
<p>He was born in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius" title="Vilnius">Vilna</a> in 1621 and died at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holleschau" title="Holleschau">Holleschau</a> on the 1st of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adar" title="Adar">
Adar</a> (Rishon), 1662. In 1633 he entered the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivah" title="Yeshivah">yeshivah</a> of R. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_H%C3%B6schel_ben_Joseph" title="Joshua Höschel ben Joseph">
Yehoshua Heschel</a> b. Yosef at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tykotzin" title="Tykotzin">Tykotzin</a>, studying later at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracow" title="Cracow">Cracow</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lublin" title="Lublin">
Lublin</a> and becoming a pupil of R. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heschel_b._Yaakov_of_Cracow&action=edit" class="new" title="Heschel b. Yaakov of Cracow">Heschel b. Yaakov of Cracow</a> (the "Rebbe Reb Heschel"). Returning to
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna" title="Vilna">Vilna</a>, he married the daughter of R. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shimon_Wolf_b._Isaac_Benimus&action=edit" class="new" title="Shimon Wolf b. Isaac Benimus">
Shimon Wolf b. Isaac Benimus</a>, and shortly after was appointed one of the assistants of R. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moshe_Lima_b._Isaac&action=edit" class="new" title="Moshe Lima b. Isaac">
Moshe Lima b. Isaac</a>, author of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chelkat_Mechokek&action=edit" class="new" title="Chelkat Mechokek">Chelkat Mechokek</a>.</i> In 1646 he went to Cracow, and in the following year published his
<i>Sifte Kohen,</i> or <i>Shakh,</i> commentary on <i>Shulchan Arukh</i> <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoreh_De%27ah" title="Yoreh De'ah">Yoreh De'ah</a>,</i> a work that was approved by eighteen of the greatest scholars of that generation. In 1648 the communities of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Poland" title="Russian Poland">Russian Poland</a> were devastated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmielnicki" title="Chmielnicki">Chmielnicki</a>, Shabbetai ha-Kohen being among the sufferers. About this time he published his
<i>Megillah Afah.</i> After a short stay at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague" title="Prague">Prague</a>, where he had sought refuge from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossack" title="Cossack">Cossack
</a> uprising, he was called to the rabbinate of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dresin&action=edit" class="new" title="Dresin">Dresin</a>, and later to that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holleschau" title="Holleschau">
Holleschau</a>, where he gained the intimate friendship of Magister Valentini Vidrich of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipzig" title="Leipzig">Leipzig</a>.</p><br>==================================================================
<br><br>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! <br><br><br><br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br><a href="mailto:RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com">
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com</a><br>Please Visit: <br><a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>