Divrei Shaul

By Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
From the Targumim Series – Subscribe to the Series

Rav Yosef Saul Nathanson was born in 1808 in Berezhany (Berzan), Galicia (today’s western Ukraine). In his day, he and the Divrei Chaim were considered to be the two gedolei hador. He wrote prolifically; his teshuvos alone contained 16 parts. He showed mastery of all aspects of Torah, including kabbalah – although he did not include the latter in support of his halachic writing. He died in Lemberg March 4, 1875, with no descendants. Many of his writings remain unpublished.

In the 1830’s he founded a Polish-style, more informal study-group under his tutelage. This study-group type of “yeshiva” attracted some of the most brilliant students in Galicia. He was appointed as the head of the rabbinate of Lemberg (Lviv) in 1857. The same year his wife died, but in 1858 he married a wealthy woman and did not accept a salary. He was famed for the philanthropy he practiced when he came into money.

He was opposed to the method of pilpul for its own sake, regarding it as suitable only for youths. His piskei halacha were based on the gemara and rishonim, without recourse to acharonim.

He tended to leniency in his rulings. He was one of those who permitted machine-baked matzah in opposition to the view of Rav Shlomo Kluger. Despite his leniency, he fought against the progressives who wanted to introduce reforms into the chinuch of the young. Nonetheless, he opposed creating divisions in the community. When Zalman Spitzer, the son-in-law of the Chasam Sofer, published a proclamation calling on 400 rabbis to sign a ban against the payment of taxes to communities whose leaders were progressives, he declined to sign because it would lead to discord. He also maintained harmonious relations with the preachers of the “temple” (i.e., Reform synagogue), Dr. Simeon Schwabacher and Bernhard Loewenstein.

He was an opponent of chassidus. Nonetheless, he respected their leaders if they were great scholars and quoted them in his works. In his own works he quotes Levi Isaac of Berdichev, and showed respect for the Chiddushei ha-Rim, and the Divrei Chaim.

In Divrei Shaul, his work on Chumash, he showed great familiarity with the classics of Jewish philosophy and thought, like the Moreh Nevuchim and the Akeidas Yitzchak. He not only cites them, but defends and explicates them.