הלל בן נפתלי צבי

Rabbi Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi (5375/1615–22 Tevet 5450/January 3, 1690), whom English sources also call Hillel ben Naphtali Herz, was a rav of Lithuania, a dayan of Vilna and later av beit din of the AHU communities in Germany and of Zolkiev in Galicia, remembered above all for his Beit Hillel on the Shulchan Aruch. He was born in Brisk to Rav Naftali Hirtz. His first rebbe was Rav Hirsh Darshan of Brisk; afterward he learned under his uncle Rav Yehoshua Heschel, author of Maginei Shlomo, and under Rav Yaakov of Lublin, father of Rav Heschel of Krakow, until he was about thirty.

He married Sarah, daughter of Yaakov Eliezer, a wealthy man of Vilna, and of Hindel, whose own mother Dreizel was a daughter of the Rema; with the marriage he settled in Vilna. From about 5410/1650 he sat as a dayan in the beit din of Rav Moshe Lima, whom he regarded as his rebbe, alongside Rav Heschel of Krakow and Rav Shmuel Koidanover. Among the rulings that carry his signature is one holding that a woman may not be stripped of her right to refuse a divorce against her will. He served in that beit din at least until 5424/1664; when he left Vilna his seat was taken by the Shach, Rav Shabtai Kohen. He was then mara d’atra in Keidan and several other Lithuanian towns, and in 5430/1670 moved to Hamburg, where on 13 Av 5431/1671 he was formally appointed av beit din of the three united kehillot of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbek. He served there until 5440/1680, when he went to Zolkiev and was its rav until his passing. He also sat as a delegate to the Vaad Arba Aratzot at the Yaroslav fair.

His Beit Hillel is a commentary and chiddushim on all four parts of the Shulchan Aruch, but only the sections on Yoreh De’ah and Even HaEzer reached print, published together with the text by his son Rav Moshe Darshan, av beit din of Kempno, in Dyhernfurth in 5451/1691. The remaining two parts, together with a commentary of his on the Torah bearing the same title, remained in manuscript. He was niftar in Zolkiev on 22 Tevet 5450/1690.