הרב יהונתן אייבשיץ

Rav Yonatan Eybeschutz (c. 5454/1694–21 Elul 5524/1764) was among the great poskim of Ashkenazi Jewry in his time, a rosh yeshiva, darshan and mekubal who served as rav of Prague, of Metz, and of the Three Communities of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek. Known in his youth as the illui of Pinczow, he was orphaned young and raised in Prossnitz in the house of his principal teacher, Rav Meir Eisenstadt, the Maharam Ash. Settling in Prague, he became a rosh yeshiva and a sought-after darshan, second in the city only to Rav David Oppenheim, and later served as its dayan before his rabbanut in Metz and, from 5510/1750, over the Three Communities.

His name rests above all on his halachic works: Kereti U’Pleti on Yoreh De’ah and Urim VeTumim on Choshen Mishpat, the latter much used by the author of the Netivot HaMishpat. His volumes of drashot, Yaarot Devash, spread widely, and he wrote as well Tiferet Yehonatan on the Chumash, Ahavat Yehonatan on the haftarot, and Bina LaIttim and Bnei Ahuvah on the Rambam. Only Kereti U’Pleti appeared in his lifetime, printed in Altona in 5523; the many works published after his passing point to the reach of his teaching, and later acharonim — the Pri Megadim, the Ketzot HaChoshen, the Netivot — weighed his words.

Alongside the revealed Torah he was engaged in Kabbalah and wrote amulets, and over these Rav Yaakov Emden, the Yaavetz, brought against him an accusation of hidden Sabbatean leanings, opening a bitter and drawn-out dispute. Most of the rabbanim of his generation stood with Rav Eybeschutz, and rabbinic tradition has largely held the charge to be mistaken; the controversy subsided, though it did not wholly disappear. In 5523/1763 he printed the first volume of Kereti U’Pleti, and he was niftar on 21 Elul 5524, buried in the old Jewish cemetery of Altona (Hamburg, Germany).