REI?ES

REI?ES (also Rei?eles ; in Heb. ??????), ?AYYIM BEN ISAAC HA-LEVI (1687–1728), and his brother JOSHUA (1697–1728), rabbis and Jewish martyrs in Poland. ?ayyim was a wealthy and learned man who held the position of av bet din in *Lvov (Lemberg) and was rabbi of *Kamenka-Bugskaya. He was also a member of the provincial committee. Joshua headed a yeshivah in Lvov. In the spring of 1728 the bishop of Lvov accused the two brothers and other Jewish personalities of the town of having attempted to induce the Jewish apostate, Jan Filipowicz, to return to Judaism, and of having profaned the symbols of Christianity which he carried with him. The Rei?es brothers were arrested, interrogated, tortured by the Inquisition tribunal, and condemned to death by burning at the stake. Information on the tragedy of the Rei?es brothers stems from Jewish and Catholic sources. According to the Jesuit source, Joshua committed suicide in prison after which his body was abused, and burned at the stake. It is also related that on the day that ?ayyim was to be burned at the stake a Jesuit priest attempted to convert him in exchange for a pardon, "but he could not convince his obstinate soul" ("Sed nihil evicit in obstinato pectore"). The property of the Rei?es brothers was confiscated and set aside for financing a project to strengthen the town walls. Regularly, on the eve of Shavuot, the anniversary of the death of the martyred Rei?es brothers, a special memorial service was held in the Na?manovich synagogue of Lvov for the repose of their souls.

bibliography:

M. Balaban, Dzielnica ?ydowska, jej dzieje i zabytki (1909), 34–37; J. Caro, Geschichte der Juden in Lemberg (1894), 103–4, 174–7; Paris Gazette (1728), 302–3.

[Arthur Cygielman]