הרב ישעיה ברלין

Rav Yeshaya Berlin (5479/1719–5559/1799), known also as Rav Yeshaya Pick and familiar to every learner of gemara from the glosses of the Masoret HaShas, was among the great chachamim of Ashkenaz of his day. Born in Eisenstadt to Rav Yehuda Leib, called Reb Leib Mochiach, he learned as a child in Berlin — whence his name — and then in the yeshiva of Rav Tzvi Hirsch Charif of Halberstadt, author of Kos Yeshuot, where he acquired his path of vast bekiut and exactness. Around 5515/1755 he settled in Breslau and married Frumet, daughter of Reb Wolf Pick, whose name he came to carry; he dealt in hides in partnership, but his true occupation was Torah, and he became known as a master of the whole of it, beloved across the community.

His habit was to annotate nearly every sefer he learned, marking sources, parallel passages, and variant readings. From this grew the work bound up with his name for all generations: his additions to the Masoret HaShas and his notes on the Talmud Bavli, printed on the gilyon of the gemara from the Dyhernfurth printing of 5560/1800 and carried into nearly every edition since. Beside them stand Omer HaShichechah, on halachot in the gemara passed over by the poskim; Hafla’ah SheBa’arachin on the Aruch; Minei Targuma on Targum Onkelos; Kashiyot Meyushav, answers to every kashya left standing in Shas; She’ilat Shalom on the She’iltot of Rav Achai Gaon; Yesh Seder LaMishnah on Zeraim and Moed; and notes on the Rambam, the Rif, the Chinuch, and the siddur. He stood in correspondence with the Noda BiYehudah and with his brother-in-law, Rav Yosef Steinhart, author of the teshuvot Zichron Yosef.

Most of his days he lived as a private man, without rabbanut. Only in Tevet 5554/1793, when he was about seventy-five, was he appointed av beit din of Breslau, succeeding Rav Yitzchak Yosef Teomim. He carried the rabbanut a little more than five years, and was niftar in Iyar 5559/1799 in Breslau, at about seventy-nine.