Rabbi Yehudah Yerucham Fishel Perlow or Perla (1846-1934) was a Polish
halakhist
''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 ...
, best known for his commentary on
Saadia Gaon's enumeration of the
613 commandments
The Jewish tradition that there are 613 commandments ( he, תרי״ג מצוות, taryag mitzvot) or mitzvot in the Torah (also known as the Law of Moses) is first recorded in the 3rd century AD, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is ...
.
Biography
He was born in
Warsaw.
[כרטיס נפטר:הרב ירוחם פישל פרלה]
/ref> Around the age of 15 he went to Łomża
Łomża (), in English known as Lomza, is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship sin ...
to study under Yehoshua Leib Diskin
Moshe Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin (1818–1898), also known as the Maharil Diskin, was a leading rabbi, Talmudist, and Biblical commentator. He served as a rabbi in Łomża, Mezritch, Kovno, Shklov, Brisk, and, finally, Jerusalem, after moving to ...
. Later he studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva
Yeshivas Etz Ḥayyim (), commonly called the Volozhin Yeshiva (), was a prestigious Lithuanian '' yeshiva'' located in the town of Volozhin, Russian Empire (now Valozhyn, Belarus). It was founded around 1803 by Rabbi Ḥayyim Volozhiner, a stu ...
and was a leading student of Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin
Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 in Mir, Russia – 10 August 1893 in Warsaw, Poland), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, '' Rosh yeshiva'' (dean) of the Volozhin ...
.[ ירוחם פישל פרלא]
/ref> Later he moved to Brisk and studied under Chaim Soloveitchik
Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (Yiddish: חיים סאָלאָווייטשיק, pl, Chaim Sołowiejczyk), also known as Reb Chaim Brisker (1853 – 30 July 1918), was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the popular Brisker appr ...
.
He was wealthy, owning a store managed by his wife, and thus refused offers to serve as rabbi of Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...
and Krakow in order to focus on his studies. He possessed one of the largest libraries in Poland at the time.
Between 1913 and 1917 his commentary on Saadia's enumeration of the commandments was published. The commentary was reportedly the work of 40 years.[ Saadia had written a piyyut enumerating the commandments in a concise manner. Perlow's commentary, in contrast, was originally published in three volumes totalling 1600 pages, and more recently in 7 volumes.][Machon Hamaor, 2011] It thoroughly examines Saadia's choice of words in the piyyut, and deduces from this Saadia's understanding of each mitzvah, and the halachic consequences that result. Many of the topics covered had not been previously covered systematically in Torah literature, or else Perlow was able to supply new approaches to the subjects.
As an example, Saadia's mention of the commandment of tzitzit
''Tzitzit'' ( he, ''ṣīṣīṯ'', ; plural ''ṣīṣiyyōṯ'', Ashkenazi: '; and Samaritan: ') are specially knotted ritual fringes, or tassels, worn in antiquity by Israelites and today by observant Jews and Samaritans. are usually ...
is just three words long: בכנפיך ציצית נצח. Perlow examines the third word, meaning "forever", perhaps suggesting that Saadia considered ''tzitzit'' obligatory even at night. Perlow concluded, instead, that Saadia meant that ''tzitzit'' is obligatory in every generation, despite the absence of techelet
''Tekhelet'' ( he, תְּכֵלֶת ''təḵēleṯ''; alternate spellings include ''tekheleth'', ''t'chelet'', ''techelet'' and ''techeiles'') is a "blue-violet", "blue", or "turquoise" dye highly prized by ancient Mediterranean civilizations. I ...
. This conclusion leads Perlow to a 20-page (!) discussion of how it is permitted to wear four-corner garments in the absence of ''techelet'', and from there to a discussion of whether a person is permitted to cause himself to enter a situation where he will be obligated but unable to perform a commandment, complete with examples from the Talmud and rishonim.
Perlow was widowed around 1923, and with his children already living far from Warsaw he was left alone. His students convinced him to move to the Land of Israel, and in 1926 he moved to Jerusalem.[ He died on Thursday night, ]Rosh Hodesh
Rosh Chodesh or Rosh Hodesh ( he, ראש חודש; trans. ''Beginning of the Month''; lit. ''Head of the Month'') is the name for the first day of every month in the Hebrew calendar, marked by the birth of a new moon. It is considered a minor h ...
Adar, in 1934.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlow, Yerucham Fishel
19th-century Polish rabbis
1846 births
1934 deaths
Polish Orthodox rabbis
Rabbis from Warsaw
Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
20th-century Polish rabbis