הרב יוסף תאומים

Rav Yosef Teomim (5487/1727–10 Iyar 5552/1792), known throughout the world of psak as the Pri Megadim after his great work, was among the foremost commentators on the Shulchan Aruch. He was born in the village of Shchyrets near Lvov, in Poland — today Ukraine — and his family soon moved to Lvov, where his father, Rav Meir Teomim, served as dayan, maggid meisharim, and moreh tzedek. From his father he drew his Torah, and while still young he took up a post there as preacher and instructor. Around 5504/1744 he moved to Komarno to marry, and lived there more than a decade as a melamed, giving his free hours entirely to learning and to writing his sefarim.

In 5527/1767 he went to Berlin, where he taught in the beit midrash of the wealthy Rav Daniel Yaffe and continued to print his works. After his father was niftar in 5531/1771 the leaders of Lvov asked him to fill the place, and at the close of 5535 he accepted, becoming dayan and moreh tzedek there. In 5541/1781 he was appointed rav and av beit din of Frankfurt an der Oder, which he held for eleven years until his passing; he was buried in the cemetery there.

His name lives in the Pri Megadim, whose first volume he printed in 5532/1772: a commentary built upon the chief nosei keilim of the Shulchan Aruch. On Orach Chaim it runs as Mishbetzot Zahav on the Turei Zahav and Eshel Avraham on the Magen Avraham; on Yoreh De’ah as Mishbetzot Zahav on the Taz and Siftei Da’at on the Shach. It came to stand as an authority in its own right, quoted often by the Mishnah Berurah, and is prized for the lengthy petichot he set before each subject and for his opening essay on the very order in which a moreh horaah must rule. Beside it he left Rosh Yosef, chiddushim on Berachot, Shabbat, Pesachim, and other masechtot, Porat Yosef on Yevamot and Ketubot, Ginnat Vradim on the rules of the Talmud, and No’am Megadim on the tefillot. It is told that before he wrote on a sugya he would learn it through many times over — and that he learned Chullin for twenty years before setting down his commentary upon it.