Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller
Rabbi Gershon Shaul Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Nathan ha-Levi Heller (c. 1579 – 19 August 1654), was a
Education and rabbinic career
After Heller was born in
In October 1624 Heller was called to the rabbinate of Mikulov, Moravia, and in March 1625, became rabbi of Vienna. Leopoldstadt was then a suburb of Vienna. When he arrived, the Jews of Vienna were scattered throughout the city, not having a central community. Heller obtained the right for the Jews to establish a central Jewish community in Leopoldstadt. He was instrumental in reorganizing the community and drew up its constitution.
From 1627 until 1629, he was Chief Rabbi of Prague.
In 1631, he moved to
Finally, in 1643 he was elected head of the rabbinical court of
Imprisonment
In the summer of 1629, Heller was arrested at the order of the imperial court of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Heller was accused of insulting Christianity and imprisoned in Vienna. A commission was quickly appointed to inquire into Heller's guilt. He defended himself adroitly, but the commission's verdict was that Heller be sentenced to death. After intervention,[2] the king agreed to impose a fine of 12,000 thalers instead. After negotiations it was reduced to 10,000 thalers (still a huge sum).[3] Afterwards the King declared that Rabbi Heller could no longer serve as a Rabbi. After spending more than a month in prison, Rabbi Heller was released. He then spent two years paying off the fine. In 1631, Heller left Prague and spent the second part of his career in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Several factors account for Heller's imprisonment. His arrest marked the beginning of a brief
Family
Yom-Tov Heller founded a long line of rabbis. His father, Nathan, who died days before he was born, was the son of Rabbi Moses. Heller was married to Rachel, a daughter of a wealthy Prague merchant, Aaron Moses Ashkenazi (Munk). Through his wife he was related to the Horowitz family. On his mother's side, he was related to the Günzburg family; on his father's side, to the Frankel family of Vienna.
Despite his father dying at age 18, Yom-Tov is believed to have had three siblings: brother Joseph d. 1659, sister Perel and another unknown sister. It is possible but unclear whether the addition of Oettingen and Wallerstein to their names means his ancestors had connections by marriage with the noble families of the
Yom-Tov and Rachel probably had 16 children, at least six sons and at least eight daughters. Sons whom he mentions in his works, were: Moses of Prague, Samuel of Nemirow (now Nemirov, Ukraine), Abraham of Lublin (now in Poland), and Leb of Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus). The daughters of whom we definitely know were: Nechle, Nisel, Doberish, Esther, Rebecca, and Reizel.
Probably his most famous descendant was Aryeh Leib Heller (b. 1745), known as the K'tzos (after his greatest work, K'tzos Hachoshen). His brother Yehuda Heller Kahana (b. 1738), known as the Kuntres Ha'Sfeikos, often appeared with the K'tzos Hachoshen. Other noted relatives are Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport (b. 1790), religious scholar, poet, writer whose grandson, Arnold Edler von Porada Rapoport (b. 1840) was a lawyer, parliamentarian, coal mining entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
In commemoration of his imprisonment and his release from prison, Heller established two special days of remembrance for his family and descendants. He established the 5th of Tammuz, the day on which his troubles began, as an annual fast-day, and the 1st of Adar as a day of celebration on the anniversary of his nomination to the rabbinate of Kraków. The reading of the Megillah that Heller wrote, called Megilat Eivah (Scroll of Hostility), that tells the story of his imprisonment and release, became a tradition for the descendants of Rabbi Heller. To this day, they celebrate the story of his life in a special Purim celebration.
In 1984 on the 330th anniversary Yahrzeit of Rabbi Heller's death his autobiographical story of his imprisonment Megillat Eivah and a detailed family tree were published in English by Rabbi C.U. Lipschitz and Dr. Neil Rosenstein under the title, The Feast and The Fast by Moznaim Publishing Corporation, New York and Jerusalem. The book contains 40 pages of charts detailing the family tree and the hundreds of families descended from Rabbi Heller.
Works and opinions
Between 1614 and 1617 Rabbi Heller published a
Heller's major halakhic work was Ma'adanei Yom Tov, a commentary to the summary of the Babylonian Talmud by Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel. Rabbi Asher's summary was often taken by German Jews of Heller's day to be the most authoritative statement of Jewish law, even in preference to the Shulchan Aruch. Heller's introduction to the work endorses that view. Heller's halakhic views, mainly on matters of ritual, are quoted by many later rabbis, especially those of Prague.
Among Heller's many minor works are sermons and
Heller was a kabbalist, and even wrote a kabbalistic work, a commentary on Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher, based on the kabbalistic views of Moses Cordovero. But throughout most of his life, Heller was opposed to the popularization of the kabbalah, and the use of kabbalistic reasoning in matters of Jewish law.
Among rabbis of his generation, Heller was exceptionally well versed in the secular sciences. His Talmudic works and his sermons show that he was interested in questions of arithmetic, astronomy, and natural science. His notes on the Giv'at haMoreh,
Folktales and fictions
Since 1881, Heller's Megilat Eivah has typically been published with a second section that is attributed to his son Samuel. Samuel relates the story of Heller's imprisonment and trial from his own point of view. In his version, the Rabbi was helped by the French general
Benish Ashkenazi, one of the major characters in the novel Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is a fictionalized version of Rabbi Heller.
Heller is also the subject of a number of folktales and legends. One well-known story about him concerns Yossele the Holy Miser, who died in Kraków. Rabbi Heller was asked where to bury him. The town leaders were disgusted by the man's lack of charity, and directed that his body be buried in a far corner of the cemetery. A few days after the miser's death, a great cry was heard in the town, for the poor and hungry were bereft of the miser's secret generosity. The "miser" had been giving charity in the most noble fashion – secretly giving money to the local merchants, who in turn had given food, clothing and money to the poor. When this came to Rabbi Heller's attention, he was visibly shaken. He instructed the town to bury him next to Yossele upon his own death. This explains why Rabbi Heller, one of the greatest of Talmudic scholars, is buried in such an undistinguished section of the cemetery.
References
- ^ Introduction of Rabbi Heller to his work Lechem Chamudos
- ^ See Addition to Megilas Eiva from Rabbi Shmuel Heller son of Rabbi Yom Tov, who describes the way he was able to have a French minister intercede on his Father's behalf. It is interesting that Rabbi Heller himself makes no reference to this. Perhaps Rabbi Heller felt that this was just God's way of helping him. He did not want his salvation to be thought of as coincidence.
- ^ Megilas Eivah authored by Rabbi Heller chronicles in detail the events of his imprisonment
- ^ Habermann, Abraham Meir (1955). "פיוטיו ושיריו של רבי יום טוב ליפמן העלר". לכבוד יום טוב. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. pp. 125 note 1. The spelling "Tosfot Yom-Tov" dates at least to 1652 but is apparently not original. The name Tosefet Yom Tov is visible in the title page and forward of the 3rd printing here and in the Hebrew National Library catalog.
- ^ על כן ראיתי כי נאות לקרוא חבור זה בשם תוספת יום טוב על שם הפועל והפעול כי זה נושאו שהוסיף ביאור על ביאור הרע"ב ז"ל.
- ^ Available on HebrewBooks at https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/24777
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Davis, Joseph, Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller (Oxford: Littman Library, 2004)
- Lipschitz, C.U.; Rosenstein, Neil, The Feast and the Fast (New York and Jerusalem: Moznaim Publishing, 1984)