יעקב משולם אורנשטיין

Rav Yaakov Meshullam Ornstein (5535/1775–25 Av 5599/1839), known by the name of his work as the Yeshuot Yaakov, was a posek, av beit din of Lvov, and among the leading rabbanim of Galicia. He was born in Stanov to Rav Mordechai Ze’ev Ornstein, who later became rav of Lvov — a family that held the rabbanut of that city for more than a hundred and fifty years. His father was niftar while he was still a child, and he grew up in Yaroslav, where he married Sarah, daughter of the wealthy Tzvi Hirsch Wahl; for some years his father-in-law provided for him with an open hand and even opened a yeshiva for him there. He served afterward as rav in Zhovkva, and when Rav Tzvi Hirsch Rozanis was niftar on 6 Kislev 5565/1804 he was called to his father’s seat as rav and rosh yeshiva of Lvov, coming to take up the appointment in 1805.

His name rests on Yeshuot Yaakov on the Shulchan Aruch: four volumes on Orach Chaim, three on Yoreh De’ah, three on Even HaEzer, and a volume of teshuvot. The commentary runs in two registers — a short section that explains the Shulchan Aruch itself, and a longer one that brings the opinions of the earlier poskim and weighs them. His chiddushim on the five chumashim of the Torah carry the same name and were first printed in Warsaw in 5672/1912, and further rulings of his are found in the responsa collections Yad Yosef and Mayim Chayim. English sources give his name as Jacob Meshullam Ornstein.

In 5576/1816 he was drawn into the affair of the cherem placed on two maskilim, Rav Shlomo Yehuda Rapoport (the Shir) and Avraham Hirsch Netkes. Rav Yaakov Meshullam did not impose that cherem, whose source appears to have lein in chassidic circles, but the authorities charged him with failing to report it; the officials themselves concluded that he was no enemy of modern education, and by their order he delivered a drasha in German announcing that the cherem carried no force. He held the rabbanut of Lvov for over thirty years, until his passing on 25 Av 5599/1839. His only son, Rav Mordechai Ze’ev Ornstein, was chosen as av beit din of Przemysl; his brother was Rav Moshe Yehoshua Heschel Ornstein, and his nephews were Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson and Rav Mordechai Ze’ev Ettinga.