Yoel Sirkis

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Rabbi Yoel Sirkis (1561-1640) was a prominent Polish posek and halakhist ("authority on Jewish law"). He lived in central Europe and held rabbinical positions in Belz, Brest-Litovsk (presently part of Belarus), and Cracow. Rabbi Sirkis is also known as "the Bach" (ב"ח) an abbreviation for his best known work, Bayit Chadash.

[edit] Biography

Rabbi Sirkis was born in Lublin in 1561. At age fourteen he went to the yeshiva of Solomon ben Judah. After remaining there some time he went to Brest-Litovsk, where he attended the yeshiva of Rabbi Phoebus. While still a youth he was invited to the rabbinate of Pruszany, near Slonim. Later he occupied the rabbinates of Lubkow, Lublin, Medzyboz, Beldza, Szydlowka, and finally Brest-Litovsk and Cracow, succeeding in each of the two last-mentioned places his teacher R. Phoebus.

"The Bach" was an adherent of the Kabbalah and an opponent of pilpul. He was also critical of those who relied solely on the Shulchan Aruch for halachic decisions, rather than on the Talmud and the Geonim. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi David HaLevi Segal, who frequently refers to him in Turei Zahav, his commentary on the Shulkhan Arukh. Rabbi Sirkis died in Cracow in 1640.

[edit] Works

Bayit Chadash (בית חדש, "New House", a reference to Deuteronomy 22:8, abbreviated as Bach), Rabbi Sirkis's best known work, is a major commentary on the Arba'ah Turim of Jacob ben Asher. The work presents and elucidates the fundamental principles of the Torah as recorded in the Mishnah, the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, and the chief codes.

Rabbi Sirkis also wrote:

HaGahot haBach (Glosses of the Bach) - suggestions for textual emendations in the Talmud and Rashi, copied from the notes that the author added to his copy of the Talmud. The Bach noted his comments to the text by enclosing a letter in Rashi script within parentheses.
Meshiv Nefesh, a commentary on the Book of Ruth, (Lublin, 1616);
Responsa known simply as Teshuvos ha-Bach ("Reponsa by the Bach").