הרב יהושע השל מקרקוב

Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Krakow (niftar 20 Tishrei 5424/1663), known as the Rebbi Reb Heschel, was among the greatest roshei yeshivah of his generation and the rebbi of many of the leading poskim of Poland in the seventeenth century. He was born to Rabbi Yaakov ben Rabbi Efraim Naftali Hirsch, who served as rav of Brisk and afterwards of Lublin; his mother’s father was Rabbi Meir Yoel of Brisk, and the family traced itself to the Mahari Weil. He learned as a child from his father, then rav of Brisk, and was known as an illui — the chachamim of Brisk said of him that the son’s strength surpassed the father’s.

He married in his youth the daughter of a wealthy man of Brisk, and after she was niftar shortly after the marriage he married Dinah, daughter of Yehudah son of Rabbi Shaul Wahl. While still in Brisk he shared with his father in directing the local yeshivah and said shiurim there, and he moved with him to Lublin when his father was appointed rav of that city, the two of them heading the yeshivah there. When his father was niftar in Kislev 5404/1643 he was appointed rav of Lublin in his place. During the decrees of 5408–5409 he acted in Vienna on behalf of the scattered communities, appearing before members of the court and raising money from wealthy Jews for the ruined kehillot of Ukraine and Poland; afterwards he was lenient in permitting agunot to remarry.

Following the passing of Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, the Tosafot Yom Tov, he was appointed rav of Krakow in his place, and he re-established the yeshivot of Poland after the decrees. In Krakow he headed a large yeshivah and rebuilt the beit din, placing at its head dayanim of the first rank in the Poland of those days, among them Rabbi Michel Teimer, author of Seder Gittin and Birkat HaMayim, and Rabbi Berachyah Shapira, author of Zera Berach. He served nine years in the rabbanut of Krakow until he was niftar on Chol HaMoed Sukkot.

Nearly all his writings were lost. A collection of his Torah as brought in his name was printed as Chanukat HaTorah, and besides it his chiddushim on Bava Kamma were found, together with part of his glosses on the Tur and on the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol. His principal talmidim were Rabbi David HaLevi Segal, the Taz, and Rabbi Shabtai HaKohen, the Shach. He was buried in the old Jewish cemetery of Krakow beside Rabbi Yehoshua Heschel, author of the Maginei Shlomo; the wording of his matzevah was set according to his own instruction that no titles of honor be cut into it.