יעקב ריישר

Rav Yaakov Reischer (c. 5415/1655–8 Shevat 5493/1733), known also as Yaakov Bakofen, was among the poskim of Ashkenaz and the author of the responsa Shevut Yaakov. He was born in Prague into a family of rabbanim whose roots lay in Reischa — Rzeszów — and from that town his name comes. His father, Rav Yosef Reischer, was a dayan in Prague and the author of Givat Olam, a key to the aggadot of Shas. He learned from his father, but his foremost rebbi was Rav Aharon Shimon Shapira, av beit din of Prague and rav of Bohemia, and shmuot from both of them fill his sefarim. He married into his rebbi’s family, and his brothers-in-law were Rav Eliyahu Shapira, author of the Eliyah Rabbah, and Rav David Oppenheim.

By 5444/1683 he was already a dayan in Prague, and later rosh of the great beit din of the kehillah. In 5469/1708 he was appointed av beit din of the principality of Ansbach, but the appointment was annulled after the parnas who had brought him there was niftar — even as a portion of the Jews of Ansbach went on bringing their questions to Rav Yaakov, a state of affairs he set out on the title page of his Shevut Yaakov. In Elul 5474/1714 an invitation reached him from Worms; he accepted it, arrived in Kislev 5475, and served there as av beit din and rosh yeshiva some three years. When opponents rose against him he accepted in 5477 the offer of Metz in Lorraine, one of the largest kehillot of western Europe and full of talmidei chachamim; of the move he wrote that his end was better than his beginning. He held Metz as av beit din and rosh yeshiva some fifteen years.

Around 5479/1719 he lost his sight, until a doctor was found who healed him: the right eye came back on 28 Tevet 5480 and the left on 3 Cheshvan 5481. From then on he signed himself with the letters standing for “like a chick whose eyes have opened.” In gratitude he completed and printed Iyun Yaakov, his commentary on the aggadot gathered in the Ein Yaakov, which has been reprinted in edition after edition of that sefer ever since. He was niftar in Metz on Shabbat, 8 Shevat 5493, and buried there the next day.

Beside Iyun Yaakov he left Minchat Yaakov on the Torat HaChatat of the Rema; Torat HaShelamim on the hilchot niddah of Yoreh De’ah; Pe’er Yaakov, chidushim on three masechtot; and Shevut Yaakov in three parts, the third of which carries his reply to the rabbanim of his day who had attacked his earlier sefarim. Chok Yaakov, his commentary on the hilchot Pesach of Orach Chaim, he wrote while he still sat in Prague, before he came to the Ashkenazic kehillot of Worms and Metz; it was first printed together with the Shulchan Aruch itself in Dessau in 5456/1696, and there it has remained.