יהושע פאלק כ"ץ

Rav Yehoshua Falik (5595/1835–26 Elul 5675/1915) was among the great rabbanim of Romania — rav of Targu Ocna and then, for some forty years, of Falticeni. Born in Moinesti, he excelled in the beit medrash of his town and received semichah from Rav Yeshaya Schorr, the great rav of Iasi, from Rav Moshe Aryeh Loebel of Bacau, and from Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson of Lvov, the Shoel U’Meishiv.

From 5630/1870 he served in Targu Ocna, and from Shevat 5635/1875 in Falticeni, a large and important kehillah wearied by years of machloket, which received him — as he wrote — “with bonds of love, and in peace.” He held that seat until his last day, founding among his works of chessed a society for hachnasat orchim. His learning ran broad and deep — at home in the hidden Torah and in the sciences of his day — and the halachic questions of Romania flowed through his desk in correspondence with the gedolim of the generation: the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, the Maharsham of Berzhan, the Yitav Lev of Sighet, Rav Meir Arik and many others.

His sefer Nehora D’Oraita preserves his Torah, and its introductions preserve his heart — the gratitude of a rav to the kehillot that “drew me with bonds of love.” He was niftar on 26 Elul 5675 (1915), on the threshold of the Yamim Noraim of a world at war.