מנחם מנדל קרוכמל

Rav Menachem Mendel Krochmal (c. 5360/1600 – 2 Shevat 5421/1661), known by his responsa as the Tzemach Tzedek, was a leading rav in central Europe. Born in Kraków, he learned Talmud under Rav Yoel Sirkes, the Bach, author of the Bayit Chadash. He distinguished himself early — with his rebbe’s leave he opened a yeshiva, from which came talmidim such as Rav Gershon Ashkenazi, later his son-in-law, and Rav Menachem Mendel Auerbach, author of the Ateret Zekeinim — and the community of Kraków appointed him dayan.

About 5396/1636 he left for Moravia and became rav of Kremsir, where he too founded a yeshiva; he served afterward in Prossnitz, and then took the district rabbanut of Nikolsburg, the chief kehillah of Moravian Jewry, which he held until his passing. In that seat he enacted many takkanot for the governance and taxation of the communities — among them a takkana against the price-gouging of fish — and he labored to free agunot after the massacres of tach v’tat. In one of his best-known teshuvot he ruled that ’Jewish blood is not hefker,’ that a kehillah must bear the cost of bringing the murderers of Jews before the courts of the state.

He corresponded with the Tosafot Yom Tov, with the Taz — his study-companion in the days of the Bach — and with other gedolim of the age. Much of his Torah was lost in the expulsion from Vienna and a later fire in Nikolsburg; what survives is his Tzemach Tzedek, responsa arranged by the order of the Shulchan Aruch, whose name hints in gematria at Menachem Mendel. His place in Nikolsburg was filled by his son-in-law, Rav Gershon Ashkenazi.