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Shabbatai[a]ben Meir HaKohen (Hebrew:שבתי בן מאיר הכהן; 1621–1662) was atalmudist andhalakhist. He became known as theShakh (Hebrew:ש"ך), which is an abbreviation of his most important work,Siftei Kohen (Hebrew:שפתי כהן,lit. 'Lips of the Priest') on the Shulchan Aruch.
Shabbatai HaKohen was born either inAmstibovo or inWilno,Lithuania, in 1621 and died inHolešov,Moravia, on the 1st ofAdar, 1662. He first studied with his fatherMeir HaKohen [he] and in 1633 he entered theyeshivah of RabbiJoshua Höschel ben Joseph atTykotzin, moving later toKraków andLublin, where he studied under Naphtali Cohen. He also studied under Rabbi Ya'acov ben Ephraim Hersch, Av Beis Din of Lublin and Brisk, and the Rosh Yeshiva of the latter.[1]
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Returning to Wilno, he married the daughter of the wealthyShimon Wolf, a great-grandson ofMoses Isserles, and shortly after was appointed to theBeit Din as one of the assistants ofMoses ben Isaac Judah Lima, author ofChelkat Mechokek. In 1655, during fighting between Polish forces and the invading Swedish army in theNorthern War, Shabbatai HaKohen fled Wilno with the entire Jewish community. After a short stay at Lublin he went toPrague and later toStrážnice in Moravia, from where he was called to the rabbinate of Holešov, where he remained until his death in 1662. While in Holešov, he gained the friendship of Magister Valentino Wiedreich ofLeipzig. The Shakh's grave in the Jewish cemetery of Holešov still exists and is visited by people from all over the world. A portion of his descendants have taken the last nameHakohen Rubin, although their reasons for doing so are unknown.[2]
In Kraków in 1646, he published hismagnum opus, theSiftei Kohen (Hebrew:שפתי כהן) or theShakh (Hebrew:ש"ך), a commentary on theShulchan AruchChoshen Mishpat. This work was approved by the greatest Polish and Lithuanian scholars and since 1674 has been published in most editions of theYoreh De'ah.
Shabbatai HaKohen was regarded by his contemporaries as more than usually learned. He frequently contested the decisions of his predecessors, and followed an entirely new path in the interpretation of the Talmudic law. He made light, too, of the decisions of his contemporaries, and thus drew on himself the enmity of some among them, includingDavid ben Shmuel HaLevi, author ofTure Zahav, andAaron Shmuel Kaidanover, author ofBirkhat HaZevach, who was the father-in-law of his brother Yonah Menachem Nachum HaKohen. Nevertheless,Sifsei/Siftei/Sifte Kohen, Shakh's commentary on theShulchan Aruch, was considered by a majority of Talmudists as of the highest authority, and they applied his decisions to actual cases as the final word of the Law. As alogician he stood, perhaps, first among the Talmudic scholars of his age.
In addition to his knowledge of the Talmudic law he was versed in theKabbala, which he used in explaining various passages of theBible. His mastery ofHebrew is evidenced by theselichot that he composed in commemoration of the Chmielnicki tragedies. In 1648 the communities of thePolish Kingdom were devastated byChmielnicki, Shabbatai HaKohen portrayed the persecutions of the Jews in hisMegillah Afah.
On the same day 1,500 people were killed in the city ofUman in Russia on the Sabbath. The noblesCossacks with whom the wicked mob had again made an alliance chased all the Jews from the city into the fields and vineyards where the villains surrounded them in a circle, stripped them to their skin and ordered them to lie on the ground. The villains spoke to the Jews with friendly and consoling words: 'Why do you want to be killed, strangled and slaughtered like an offering to your God Who poured out His anger upon you without mercy? Would it not be safer for you to worship our gods, our images and crosses and we would form one people which would unite together.' "But the holy and faithful people who so often allowed themselves to be murdered for the sake of the Lord, raised their voices together to the Almighty in Heaven and cried: 'Hear o Israel the Lord our God, the Holy One and the King of the Universe, we have been murdered for Thy sake so often already. O Lord God of Israel let us remain faithful to Thee.' Afterward they recited the confession of sins and said: 'We are guilty and thus recognize the Divine judgment.' Now the villains turned upon them and there was not one of them who did not fall victim.
A Synagogue in Holešov is calledShakh Synagogue after Shabbatai HaKohen. It was built in the late 16th century, after the former synagogue had burned down in 1560. In the early 17th century the synagogue was enlarged with a sidehall and awomen's gallery. Between 1725 and 1737 the interior was designed in a baroque decoration in the so-called "Polish style". The synagogue is an isolated plain building. It has a rectangular ground plan. In the eastern side of the main hall is theAron Kodesh, built in the baroque altar style. In the centre of the hall is thebimah, built as an octagonal platform with a metal railing. Some parts of the walls and the vault are decorated with ornamental paintings with herbal and faunal motifs and Hebrew texts. The sidehall is separated from the main hall by two arcades. On the first floor there is the women's gallery, decorated with liturgical texts, and the second floor was used as a school. Today, the synagogue is a museum; both floors house the exhibition "The Jews in Moravia".
