מאיר מלובלין

Rav Meir ben Gedalia of Lublin (5318/1558–16 Iyar 5376/1616), called the Maharam of Lublin and at times HaRav HaManhir, was a rosh yeshiva, posek and commentator on the Talmud. He was born in Lublin to Rav Gedalia, son of the mekubal Rav Asher of Krakow, and was known as an illui already in childhood. He learned in the yeshiva of Krakow and married Esther, daughter of the rosh yeshiva and av beit din Rav Yitzchak HaKohen Shapira. In 1582 he moved to Lublin to found a yeshiva, and in 1587 — before he was thirty — returned to Krakow to fill the place of his father-in-law, who had been niftar, as rosh yeshiva and av beit din. In 1595 he was appointed rav of Lvov, where he served until 1613. English sources call him Meir Lublin.

His life’s work is Meir Einei Chachamim, printed from the Amsterdam edition of 5515 at the back of the volumes of the Bavli under the heading “Maharam,” beside the Maharsha and the Maharshal. He was a baal pilpul who weighed every word of Rashi and Tosafot and argued with his contemporaries over how the Rishonim are to be understood; his explanations are short and direct. In psak he stood with those who resisted the codification that came in with the Shulchan Aruch, writing in his Shu”t Maharam Lublin that one must not rely with closed eyes on the rulings of the Mechaber and the Rema — and perhaps for that very reason he carried a deep respect for the Maharshal, which he states plainly both in his responsa and throughout his commentary on Shas. He held to kocha d’hetera and labored to be lenient where the need was real; over a hundred and forty of the halachic questions put to him were gathered and printed after his passing.

In 1612 Rav Manoach Hendel and Rav Yehoshua Falk Katz, the Sema, arranged a get in Vienna for a woman whose husband was ill; when the husband recovered, many poskim ruled the get valid. The Maharam differed, and in a long teshuvah held that the woman was still married to her husband, since the conditions of the get had not been met. Weighty rabbanim such as the author of the Levush supported him, but the Maharsha and the Sema opposed his ruling, a bitter machloket broke out, and one of the leading rabbanim of Lvov protested against him sharply — from which he was compelled to leave the city. He returned to Lublin and served as rav there until his passing on 16 Iyar 5376/1616.

Another machloket in Lublin was settled by the Maharsha himself. The Maharam had given a shiur resolving a difficult Tosafot through a long pilpul, while Rav Shimon Wolf Auerbach, who headed a second yeshiva in the town, answered the same Tosafot by adding a single vav; the two camps of talmidim divided, and the parnasim put it to a vote, which Rav Shimon Wolf won. The Maharsha was brought to rule the matter, and on Friday night the whole city gathered in the beit knesset to hear him: he opened by asking why he had been summoned at all when two gedolei olam were within the walls of the city, and ruled that each was to return to his former place. Among his talmidim were the Shelah HaKadosh, Rav Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz; Rav Meir Katz, father of the Shach; Rav Efraim Zalman Shor, author of Tevuot Shor; and Rav Yehoshua Heschel Charif, author of Magini Shlomo and the responsa Pnei Yehoshua.