Isaiah Horowitz
{{Short description|16th–17th century Ashkenazi rabbi and mystic}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2019}}
Image:Shelah.jpg compound, Tiberias, Israel]]
{{Kabbalah}}
Isaiah or Yeshayahu ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz ({{langx|he|ישעיה בן אברהם הלוי הורוויץ}}) (c. 1555 – March 24, 1630), also known as the Shelah HaKaddosh ({{Script/Hebrew|השל"ה הקדוש}} "the holy Shelah") after the title of his best-known work, was a prominent rabbi and mystic.
Biography
Isaiah Horowitz was born in Prague around 1555.{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=HOROWITZ, ISAIAH|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7876-horowitz-isaiah|access-date=Jan 5, 2017}}
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:{{Bulleted list|Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 47b;|Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim;|Steinschneider, {{abbr|Cat. Bodl.|Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the Bodleian Library }};|Landshuth,
In 1602, Isaiah Horowitz was appointed Av Beit Din in Austria, and in 1606 was appointed Rabbi of Frankfurt. In 1614, after serving as rabbi in prominent cities in Europe, he left following the Fettmilch Uprising and assumed the prestigious position of chief rabbi of Prague.
In 1621, after the death of his wife, he moved to Israel, was appointed rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, and married Hava, daughter of Eleazer. In 1625, he was kidnapped and imprisoned, together with 15 other Jewish rabbis and scholars, by the Pasha (Ibn Faruh) and held for ransom. After 1626, Horowitz moved to Safed, erstwhile home of Kabbalah, and later died in Tiberias on March 24, 1630 (Nisan 11, 5390 on the Hebrew calendar).
In his many kabbalistic, homiletic and halachic works, he stressed the joy in every action, and how one should convert the evil inclination into good, two concepts that influenced Jewish thought through to the eighteenth-century, and greatly influenced the development of Hasidic Judaism.
Famous descendants of Isaiah Horowitz included Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin (known as {{Script/Hebrew|החוזה מלובלין}} "The Seer of Lublin"), the prominent Billiczer rabbinical family of Szerencs, Hungary and the Dym family of rabbis and communal leaders in Galicia, Aaron HaLevi ben Moses of Staroselye (a prominent student of Shneur Zalman of Liadi), the Fruchter-Langer families, Rabbi Meir Zelig Mann of Memel, Lithuania (b. 1921, d. 2008), and, on their mother's side, the important Yiddish writers Daniel Charney, Shmuel Charney, and Baruch Vladek,{{Cite web |last=Charney |first=Daniel |date=1951 |title=Duḳor memuarn; ershṭer ṭayl |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc200642/charney-daniel-dukor-memuarn-ershter-tayl |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=www.yiddishbookcenter.org |publisher=Tint un feder |page=34 |language=yiddish |publication-place=Toronto, Canada}}{{Cite book |last=Charney |first=Daniel |url=https://bookshop.org/p/books/dukor-a-memoir-daniel-charney/18826881 |title=Dukor - A Memoir |publisher=JewishGen |year=2022 |edition= |language=en |translator-last=Skakun |translator-first=Michael}} as well as Elie Wiesel.Wiesel, Elie, and Elie Wiesel Catherine Temerson (Translator). "Rashi (Jewish Encounters)". ISBN 9780805242546. Schocken, January 1, 1970. Web. October 27, 2016.
==Works==
His most important work Shenei Luḥot HaBerit ({{langx|he|שני לוחות הברית}}, Two Tablets of the Covenant, abbreviated Shelah {{Script/Hebrew|של"ה}}), is an encyclopedic compilation of ritual, ethics, and mysticism. It was originally intended as an ethical will - written as a compendium of the Jewish tradition. The title page of the first edition states that the work is "compiled from both Torahs, Written and Oral, handed down from Sinai". The work has had a profound influence on Jewish life - notably, on the early Hasidic movement, including the Baal Shem Tov; Shneur Zalman of Liadi was described as a "Shelah Yid", and Shelah clearly echoes in his work, Tanya. The work was first published in 1648 by his son, Shabbethai Horowitz, and has been often reprinted. An abbreviated form by Jehiel Michel Epstein appeared in 1683.{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Jehiel N. Epstein|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5825-epstein#anchor5}} (See also שני לוחות הברית article in the Hebrew Wikipedia).
Horowitz also wrote the Sha'ar ha-Shamayim siddur (prayer book) which had an influence on the later Ashkenazi nusach.
=Tefillat HaShlah - The Shelah's Prayer=
Rabbi Horowitz wrote that the eve of the first day of the month of Sivan is the most auspicious time to pray for the physical and spiritual welfare of one's children and grandchildren, since Sivan was the month that the Torah was given to the Jewish people. He composed a special prayer to be said on this day, known as the Tefillat HaShlah "the Shelah's Prayer".{{cite web|url=http://www.hakolhayehudi.co.il/midrash/ערב-ראש-חודש-סיוון-תפילת-השלה-171|date=May 18, 2015|website=hakolhayehudi.co.il|language=he|script-title=he:ערב ראש חודש סיוון: תפילת השל"ה|trans-title=Eve of the First of the Month of Sivan: The Shelah's Prayer|access-date=Jan 11, 2017}} In modern times, the custom of saying this prayer on the appointed day has become very popular among Orthodox parents.
Burial place
Isaiah Horowitz is buried in HaRambam compound / complex in Tiberias / Tveria.
Other notable rabbis also buried in HaRambam compound / complex:
- Maimonides
- Maimon Ben Yosef, the father of Maimonides
- Eliezer ben Hurcanus
- Yohanan ben Zakkai
- Joshua ben Hananiah
Footnotes
{{Reflist}}
External links
=Sources=
{{EB1911 poster|Horowitz, Isaiah}}
- [http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=112346 Short biography of Rabbi Isaiah Halevi Horowitz (The Shelah)], chabad.org
- [https://substack.com/home/post/p-160870503 The Enduring Legacy of the Shelah Hakadosh]Hamodia
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403193250/http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/shlah.htm Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz (The Shelah)], ou.org
- [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/shlah.html Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz (The Shelah)], jewishvirtuallibrary.org
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20131002022206/http://www.meaningfullife.com/spiritual/mystics/The_Shaloh.php Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz –The Shelah], meaningfullife.com
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050404123651/http://shlomo.horwitzfam.org/holy-shlah.htm Rabbi Yishayahu ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz], horwitzfam.org
- [https://archive.today/20130129081717/http://mavenmall.com/blog/tefillas-hashlah/ Tefillat HaShlah Custom in Modern Life], mavenmall.com
=Resources=
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130519113036/http://www.seforimonline.org/unsorted/ Shney Luchot Habrit: fulltext download]}} (Hebrew), seforimonline.org
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20040829003524/http://www.urimpublications.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UP&Product_Code=sl&Category_Code=bde "Shney Luchot Habrit"], Translator Rabbi Eliyahu Munk, Urim Publications 2000. {{ISBN|965-7108-07-1}}
- Isaiah Horowitz: The Generations of Adam. Ed. by Miles Krassen. New York 1996.
- [http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%9C%22%D7%94/%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9D Text of Tefillat HaShlah] (Hebrew), he.wikisource
Literature
- "Life and teachings of Isaiah Horowitz", Rabbi Dr. E. Newman, Judaica Press 1972. {{ISBN|0-9502739-0-2}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Isaiah}}
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:17th-century rabbis from Bohemia
Category:17th-century German rabbis
Category:Ashkenazi rabbis in Ottoman Palestine
Category:Authors of books on Jewish law