Kluger, Shlomo

Rabbi Shlomo was born in the town of Komarov ( Lublin province ) in Western Ukraine , which was at that time part of the Russian Empire , in 1785 (according to other sources ^[1] - in 1788). His father was Rabbi Judah-Aaron, Rabbi Komarov. Already in early childhood, he showed remarkable ability to study, writing his first comments to the Torah at the age of six. At thirteen, he lost his father and moved to the city of Zamosc , where he spent several days in Rabbi Mordechai Rabin's yeshiva , however, since the order of study did not match his level and speed of learning, he began to study independently in a local synagogue.

Soon the rumor about a wise young man was reached by Rabbi Yosef Ohgilranter, a friend of Rabbi Shlomo’s father, who, convinced of the young man’s depth of knowledge, decided to take him under his care and provide his material needs so that he could only spend all his time studying Torah. At the same time, Rabbi Shlomo began to learn from Rabbi Yaakov Krantz, known as Magid from Dubno .

When Rabbi Shlomo was fifteen, his mother died, and he became an orphan . In 1802, he married a girl named Liba-Malya and moved to Ravu-Russkaya ( Petrokov province ), where he lived with his father-in-law, who provided for him. Despite his young age, even then he met with many famous rabbis, but did not want to become a rabbi himself. After the death of his father-in-law, he opened a shop where he sat and constantly studied. However, when he saw that things were going badly in the store, he decided that he would have to accept the post of rabbi.

In 1809, he was accepted as a rabbi in the town of Kulikovo ( Galicia ), and a year later his first son was born - Haim Yehuda, who was weak from birth and died young during his father's life. In 1817 he became the rabbi of the city of Jozefov (Lublin province), and in the summer of 1820 he was accepted as Rabbi Brod. In 1838, his first wife died, and Rabbi Shlomo married for the second time Frida, the daughter of Rabbi Arieh Margolyiyot from Dubno , from whom he gave birth to the son of Rabbi Abraham-Binyamin, who eventually inherited the rabbinical post of the father.

In 1845, he was offered the post of a rabbi in Berezhany (Galicia), and, despite the persuasion of the Brodsky community, Rabbi Shlomo agreed. Shortly after his arrival in Berezhany, Rabbi Shlomo became very ill with typhus and the doctors did not give him a chance for recovery. However, his position soon began to improve, and he made a commitment that if he recovered, he would return to Brody. Indeed, after a while he recovered and fulfilled his promise, returning to Brody, where by that time another rabbi had been appointed. There he lived to a great age and died in 1869 ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

In the rabbinical literature of Eastern Europe and Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century, Rabbi Kluger holds a special place. Being an outstanding Talmudic and halachic authority, possessing enormous knowledge and extraordinary moral qualities, Kluger became the most popular rabbi and generally recognized authority on ritual and halachic issues not only in Galicia, where he mostly lived and worked, but also in Russia and Poland. His opinion, which was a very rare case, was highly quoted by both the Hasidim and the Misnagdim .

Kluger's high prestige contributed, among other things, to his rare work capacity, thanks to which he managed to write 174 essays in his life, and the number of his individual responses reached several thousand. Most of Kluger’s essays remained unpublished, and only 28 of them were printed.

This workload affected the quality of the writings of Rabbi Kluger. The current public affairs of the community and a huge number of questions for all sorts of reasons from all over Russia and Eastern Europe forced him to give answers in a hurry, because of what they sometimes turned out to be superficial and contradictory, which caused reproaches from some of his contemporary Jewish scribes ^[1] .

Rabbi Shlomo differed steadfastness and responsiveness, in all matters relating to Jewish law, he stood firm, not afraid of any threats.

Funeral during the cholera epidemic

In 1831, a cholera epidemic broke out, which claimed many lives at Brody. The poor people suffered especially from the epidemic, and, due to the multitude of the dead, prices for shrouds rose sharply, so the community leaders decided to bury the poor in their clothes. When Rabbi Shlomo became aware of this, he went home to one of the local rich people, and despite his influence and great financial help to the community, without fear of spoiling relations with him, he reprimanded him of the ruling and secured its cancellation.

Story of a Reznik

In 1843, a suspicion appeared that the cutter in Berdichev was irresponsibly doing his job, since all the cattle he cut were declared kosher after checking (which is practically impossible, because an animal is considered kosher when all its internal organs are intact, and, for example, in cows lungs often holes). Reznik enjoyed the support of the owners of the local slaughterhouse, rich and powerful people who did not want to lose their money in vain.

The heads of the community appealed to Rabbi Shlomo to judge between them and the supporters of the butcher. He arrived in Berdichev and stayed there for about three weeks, during which he not only investigated the incident at the slaughterhouse, but also resolved the litigation, handed down court orders and drew up a set of rules ^[5] for the local slaughterhouse used in Berdichev until World War II .

From the very first meeting, Rabbi Shlomo realized that the cutter was not fulfilling his task properly. However, he carried out several more inspections so that he would not be accused of making a decision on the basis of a superficial examination, and even then he did not make a decision because he was afraid for his own life. Indeed, the owners of the massacre informed the authorities that he was trying to deprive them of a large part of the taxes, because of which Rabbi Shlomo had to flee Berdichev early in the morning.

Only on his return to Brody did Rabbi Shlomo give an unequivocal court order prohibiting the resident to continue his work and directing the heads of the Berdichev community to appoint another resident.

The slaughterhouse owners, seeing that they were losing true profits, found another rabbi who wrote a letter against Rabbi Shlomo, but the Galicia rabbis, who knew Rabbi Shlomo Kluger’s painstaking attitude to the Torah Law, did not pay attention to this letter.

Machine Matting Ban

In the days of Rabbi Shlomo, the first matzo baking machine was invented. Rabbi Shlomo forbade the use of such a matzah on Pesach for several reasons - in particular, because the dough may get stuck in the details of the machine, which is difficult to notice and difficult to eliminate (after 18 minutes the dough is considered leavened and not suitable for use on Pesach). Rabbi Shlomo issued a brochure called “Raba le Yisrael Fashion” (Important Message to Israel), in which he strictly forbids the use of a matzo baking machine. On the other hand, Rabbi Shaul Natanzon, Rabbi of Lviv , authorized the use of the machine and issued a response letter, which he called “Bitul amadaa” (“Cancellation of the Message”) and in which he argued in favor of the engine matza.

The dispute over the matzoh continued for many years, and although today most Jews use machine matzah, there are quite a few who follow the instructions of Rabbi Shlomo Kluger today. At the same time, Rabbi Shlomo defended his views so stubbornly that these machines practically did not appear throughout Galicia ^[6] .

(The list is incomplete. In addition, numerous answers to Rabbi Kluger are preserved in the works of his contemporaries.)

• Sefer ha-Chajim (short stories to Shulchan Arukh , Orach Chajim, Zholkiev, 1825);
• Schenot-Chajim (Resp., Lviv, 1860);
• "Tub-Taam we-Daat" (responsi to "Terefot" and other departments "Jore Dea", 1st ed., Lviv, 1860; 2nd ed., Zhytomyr, 1871; 3rd ed., Containing 246 responsov and 272 resumes, קצורי דינים, Terefot, Lviv, 1884);
• “Bigde Jom-Tob” (short stories to Betz’s treatise, Lviv, 1891);
• "Me Niddah" (short stories to the treatise Nida, Zholkiev, 1834);
• Nidre Zerizin (short stories to the treatise Nedarim, ib., 1839);
• “Abodat-Abodah” (short stories to Avoda Zara 's treatise, ib., 1865).

• Jewish Abbreviations (Marshak, Magarshak)

• Book Toldot Shlomo תולדות שלמה, (Hebrew), Rabbi Yehuda-Aaron Kluger (grandson of Maarshak), Lviv, 1888 - biography of Rabbi Shlomo Kluger
• E. Kohn, ינת סופרים, Lviv, 1892, pp. 108-109;
• I. Shmelkes, יצחק יח, 1875; JE, VII, 525.