Rabbi Yair Chayim Bacharach (1639,
Lipník nad Bečvou
Lipník nad Bečvou (; german: Leipnik) is a town in Přerov District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,800 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation ...
,
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The ...
— 1702; also known by his work Chavos Yair) was a German
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
and major 17th century
posek
In Jewish law, a ''Posek'' ( he, פוסק , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the position of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities ar ...
, who lived first in
Koblenz
Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary.
Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its name ...
and then the remainder of his life in
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
** Worms (electoral district)
* Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio
Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm ...
and
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mainz ...
. His grandmother
Eva Bacharach was a granddaughter of the
Maharal of Prague
Judah Loew ben Bezalel (; between 1512 and 1526 – 17 September 1609), also known as Rabbi Loew ( Löw, Loewe, Löwe or Levai), the Maharal of Prague (), or simply the Maharal (the Hebrew acronym of "''Moreinu ha-Rav Loew''", 'Our Teacher, Rabbi ...
, and his father
Moses Samson Bacharach, and grandfather had served as rabbis of Worms.
Life
He was born in
Lipnik in 1638; according to another claim, he was born in Mahersbrod in 1628. His birth name was Hayim; the name Yair was added after an illness. At age 12 he moved to
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
** Worms (electoral district)
* Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio
Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm ...
along with his father, who was appointed rabbi of the city. At 23 he was ordained as a rabbi, and served for some time as rabbi of
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mainz ...
. In 1666 he was chosen as rabbi of nearby
Koblenz
Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary.
Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its name ...
, but in 1669 he returned to Worms.
In 1689 the
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
** Worms (electoral district)
* Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio
Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm ...
community was decimated by the French during the
Nine Years' War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
, and Bacharach was forced to leave the city for a period of 10 years. Gradually, it was rebuilt. In 1699 he was appointed rabbi of Worms, where his father and grandfather had served before him. He served for only three years until his death in 1702. The inscription on his tombstone begins with the words, “A great and dark horror befalls us from the hiding of the light of Rabbeinu...”
Works
Bacharach was the author of ''Chavos Yair'' ("Villages of Yair") a collection of
responsa
''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...
by the title of which is he commonly referred (first published in Frankfurt am Main, 1699); its title is a reference to his grandmother Chava as well as to a place mentioned in Numbers 32:41 and elsewhere in the
Jewish Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Shulkhan Arukh
The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in Is ...
'' but was withdrawn by Bacharach when he discovered that other commentaries, notably the
Taz and the
Magen Avraham
Abraham Abele Gombiner () (c. 1635 – 5 October 1682), known as the Magen Avraham, born in Gąbin (Gombin), Poland, was a rabbi, Talmudist and a leading religious authority in the Jewish community of Kalisz, Poland during the seventeenth centu ...
, had appeared. It is still regarded as a prime source of material concerning ''
minhag
''Minhag'' ( he, מנהג "custom", classical pl. מנהגות, modern pl. , ''minhagim'') is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, ''Nusach'' (), refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers.
Etym ...
im'' (customs) of the area and epoch. Bacharach also wrote a work criticizing Rabbi
Aharon Teomim-Frankels' ''Mateh Aharon''. Therein, Bacharach sharply criticizes the
pilpul
''Pilpul'' ( he, פלפול, loosely meaning 'sharp analysis'; ) is a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either explain conceptual differences between various halakhic rulings or to reconcile any appare ...
ic methodology common among the rabbis of his time.
Besides his
Halakhic
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
expertise he had complete mastery of all the
sciences
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
,
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and wrote
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
. He compiled a 46 volume encyclopedia on many topics called ''Yair Nesiv'', which remains unpublished.
In 1982 his major work, ''Mekor Chaim'', was finally published posthumously by Machon Yerushalayim, and was reprinted in 2018.
Notable Views
Bacharachs' view of
Kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
was nuanced. While he believed Kabbalah to be very holy, he maintained that it posed great theological danger, and should therefore only be studied by the extremely pious, and only with a teacher. In his responsa, Bacharach relates that a commoner asked him to explain the Kabbalistic formulas commonly printed in prayer books. Bacharach refused to answer, and when he was pressed, said only that he didn't know the explanation. Although he discouraged in-depth study of Kabbalah, he encouraged simple reading of the ''Zohar'', and many of his writings contain Kabbalistic references.
External links
Jewish Encyclopediafrom the
Orthodox Union
The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for ...
website
Family Tree
Works
''Chavos Yair''
''Chut Hashani''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacharach, Yair
1639 births
1702 deaths
People from Lipník nad Bečvou
Czech Orthodox rabbis
17th-century German rabbis
Rabbis from Worms, Germany
Authors of books on Jewish law
Moravian rabbis