Biography
Rabbi David Tevele HaKohen Schiff (דוד טעבלי שיף) was an acharon who served as rav of the Great Synagogue of London and chief rabbi of England from 1765 until he was niftar in 1791.
He was the son of Shlomo Schiff, of a well-known family of Frankfurt, and a talmid of Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, author of the Pnei Yehoshua on the Gemara. Before coming to London he served as a maggid in Vienna, as one of the rabbis of the Klaus (house of study) of Worms, and as a dayan in Frankfurt.
He exchanged letters with leading rabbanim of his day, among them Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of Prague, author of the Noda BiYehuda, and Rabbi Natan Maas, a dayan of Frankfurt. His best-known talmid was Rabbi Natan Adler of Frankfurt, known for his kabbalah and the rebbe of the Chatam Sofer. Rabbi Schiff is buried in the Alderney Road cemetery in the East End of London, the first Ashkenazi cemetery in England after Jews returned to the country.
After his passing his chiddushim on the Mishnah, the Talmud Bavli and the Torah were printed in the sefer Leshon HaZahav, published by his nephew Rabbi Gavriel Adler, brother of Rabbi Natan Adler. Some of his chiddushim on the Mishnah were printed in the Vilna edition of the Mishnayot and have appeared in later editions since.
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הרב דוד טעבלי הכהן שיף היה הרב הראשי לאנגליה.
Chief Rabbi David Tevele Schiff was the chief rabbi of Great Britain and the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death.
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