RAPOPORT, ABRAHAM BEN ISRAEL JEHIEL HAKOHEN

RAPOPORT, ABRAHAM BEN ISRAEL JEHIEL HAKOHEN (1584–1651), Polish talmudist and halakhic authority. Abraham was born in Cracow, and studied in the yeshivah there under Meshullam Feivush of Zbarazh. He married the daughter of Mordecai Schrenzilsh, a wealthy man of distinguished ancestry from Lvov, and adopted his surname, becoming known as Abraham Schrenzel of Schrenzilsh. In Lvov he studied under Joshua ben Alexander *Falk. Although one of the outstanding scholars of his time, Abraham did not take up a rabbinical position, and taught in a voluntary capacity for more than 40 years in the yeshivah of Lvov. He was prominent in the *Council of the Four Lands, and was placed in charge of the collection of funds for the needy in Ereẓ Israel.

Rapoport's most important work is his Eitan ha-Ezraḥi, published by his grandson Abraham, the rabbi of Baslov (Ostrow, 1796). It is divided into two parts, the first containing more than 50 responsa, and the second including sermons arranged according to the weekly sections of the Pentateuch, together with a commentary on the Five Scrolls and parts of Psalms and Proverbs. Rapoport's genealogy appears at the end of the work. In addition to its halakhic value, Eitan ha-Ezraḥi contains much important historical material, biographies of rabbis and heads of yeshivot, and details of the economic and moral state of the Polish communities of the time. Some responsa shed light on the Chmielnicki massacre (1648–49) which occurred during his lifetime. From the introduction to Eitan ha-Ezraḥi it appears that Rapoport left many writings in manuscript, which were destroyed during various upheavals which occurred after his death.

bibliography:

A. Harkavy, Ḥadashim Gam Yeshanim, 2, pt. 3 (1899), 40f.; Rubashov (Shazar), in: Historish Shriftn, 1 (1929), 172f.; Halpern, Pinkas, 67, 74 n. 6, 220; Markon, in: Festschrift… J. Freimann (1937), 93–104 (Heb. section).

[Shlomo Eidelberg]