שאול לעוונשטאם

Rav Shaul Lowenstam (5477/1717–7 Tammuz 5550/1790), known as the Binyan Ariel after his sefer, was among the great rabbanim of Ashkenaz in his century, serving as rav of Risha, Dubno, and for thirty-five years the Ashkenazi kehillah of Amsterdam. He was born in Risha (Rzeszow) to its rav, Rav Aryeh Leib, and to Miriam, daughter of the Chacham Tzvi — making him a nephew of Rav Yaakov Emden; his brother was Rav Tzvi Hirsch Levin of Berlin. Renowned in Torah from his youth, he served first in Lokatch, and from 5509 as rav and rosh yeshiva of Dubno, until a great fire devastated the city. In 5515 he was called to fill his father’s place in Amsterdam, where he led the kehillah and its beit medrash until his passing.

His Binyan Ariel (Amsterdam, 5538/1778) holds chiddushim on the Torah, the five megillot and masechtot of Shas. Though his fame rested on his psak, he chose deliberately to print a sefer of Torah and aggadah rather than his teshuvot, explaining in his introduction that he did not want rulings relied upon in practice in his name; his responsa are nonetheless scattered through the sefarim of the poskim of his generation, among them the Noda BiYehuda. In the famous controversy of the Get of Cleves he stood firmly among the rabbanim who upheld the get’s validity. The Chida, who met him in Amsterdam in 5538, wrote in Shem HaGedolim of the Torah, humility and completeness he found in him.

He was niftar on Shabbat, 7 Tammuz 5550, and was buried at Muiderberg; his son Rav Yaakov Moshe Lowenstam succeeded him in the rabbanut of Amsterdam.