יהושע פלק כץ

Rav Yehoshua Falk ben Alexander HaKohen Katz (c. 5315/1555–19 Nisan 5374/1614), known by his sefer as the SMA, was among the first of the nosei keilim of the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch and one of the great acharonim; English sources give his name as Joshua Falk or Joshua Falk Katz. He was born in Krakow and learned by the Maharshal, Rav Shlomo Luria, and by the Rema, whose words he brings in his sefarim. He stood at the head of the yeshiva of Lvov with many talmidim, so many of whom went on to serve as roshei yeshiva, dayanim and avot batei din that his son testifies scarcely a kehillah in Poland lacked one of them. His father-in-law, Yisrael Eidels, built him a house in which he lived with his talmidim and wrote his sefarim, and for his honor his principal works carry the collective name Beit Yisrael.

He was an authority of the first rank for the Vaad Arba Aratzot, and in 5371/1611 he arranged the get of Vienna together with Rav Manoach Hendel, rav of Vienna — a get that stirred a sharp machloket among the great rabbanim of the day, among them the Maharam of Lublin and Rav Mordechai Yoffe, and which ended with the acceptance of the SMA’s position. He held that a man must not lean on the codes to the exclusion of the sources from which they grew, and toward that end wrote his commentaries on the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch.

Beit Yisrael on the Tur is a twin work: the Perishah, which explains the words of the Tur plainly and traces its rulings to their roots in the Gemara and the rishonim, and the Derishah, which weighs at length the interpretations of the various baalei halacha. It was first printed with the Tur in Lublin in 5395–5398/1635–1638. The fourth part of the series is Sefer Meirat Einayim on Choshen Mishpat, the SMA, which explains the words of the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema, finds the sources of their halachot and adds dinim of its own; it brings together what the rishonim ruled, with a table pointing to where each ruling may be found.

Chiddushim on fourteen masechtot were burned in Lvov in his lifetime, and his drashot and a large sefer of she’elot u’teshuvot were burned two years after his passing. He gave the SMA to the press of Rav Moshe Katz in Prague and was niftar in Lvov before the printers began, leaving in his tzavaah that his sefarim be brought to print; it appeared in Prague in 5374–5375/1614 and has been printed in most editions of the Shulchan Aruch since. Among his talmidim were Rav Yehoshua Heschel of Krakow, author of Maginei Shlomo, and Rav Meir HaKohen, father of the Shach. His wife Beila, known as a tzadeket and a lamdanit, went up to Eretz Yisrael after his passing and is buried near the kever of Zecharyah HaNavi.