ברוך תאומים-פרנקל

Rav Baruch Frankel-Teomim (5520/1760 – 7 Tammuz 5588/1828), known by the name of his sefer as Baruch Taam, was among the great poskim of his generation in Galicia and Moravia. He was born to Rav Yehoshua Yechezkel Feivush Teomim, rav of Ostrovtza, and descended from Rav Yonah Teomim-Frankel, author of the Kikayon DeYonah — the name Teomim meaning ’twins.’

From 5538/1778 he served as rav in Vishnitza, and from 5562/1802 until his passing he led the kehillah of Leipnik in Moravia, where he founded a yeshiva. His daughter Rachel married Rav Chaim Halberstam, the Sanzer Rav, so that his line runs into the chassidus of Sanz.

His name is carried by Baruch Taam, his chiddushim on the sugyot of Shas, and he left also Ateret Chachamim, Baruch She’amar, and Imrei Baruch with his notes on the Shulchan Aruch and its nosei keilim, besides glosses he wrote in the margins of many sefarim. Among his well-known chiddushim is his understanding that a migo is a ’power of claim’ — a legal force that a litigant’s plea carries because he could have won with a different claim, not merely a sign that he is no liar. He was niftar in 5588 and buried in Leipnik.