Shalom Shachna ( 1490 or 1510 – 1558) was a

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 t ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ist, and

Rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

of several great

Acharonim In Halakha, Jewish law and history, ''Acharonim'' (, , ; ; ) are the leading rabbis and Posek, poskim (Jewish legal decisors) living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifically since the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' ...

including

Moses Isserles Moses Isserles (; ; 22 February 1530 / 25 Adar I 5290 – 11 May 1572 / 18 Iyar 5332), also known by the acronym Rema, was an eminent Polish Ashkenazi rabbi, talmudist, and '' posek'' (expert in Jewish law). He is considered the "Maimonides o ...

, who was also his son-in-law.

Biography

Shachna was a pupil of Jacob Pollak, founder of the method of Talmudic study known as '' Pilpul''. In 1515 Shachna established the yeshiva in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

, which had the third largest Jewish community in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

during that period. Shachna became famous as a teacher, and students came to Lublin from all over

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

to study there. The yeshiva became a center of learning of both

and

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

; the

received the title of rector and equal rights to those in Polish universities with the permission of the King in 1567. (This, as well as the great scholarship of those who studied there, have led some to refer to

as "the Jewish

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

".) Shachna was succeeded as head of Lublin Yeshiva by Solomon Luria (the ''Maharshal'').

Works

Only one of Shachna's writings, the

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

''Pesakim be-Inyan Kiddushin'' has been published - Shachna was known for his modesty, and enjoined his son Israel from printing any of his manuscripts.

References

External links

Shakna, Shalom
jewishencyclopedia.com

jewishvirtuallibrary.org 1558 deaths 16th-century Polish rabbis Rosh yeshivas 1510s births Year of birth unknown {{poland-rabbi-stub