Rabbi Yaakov Emdin Rabbi, judge (Posek - פוסק) and author of Halacha books (1697 - 1776). He was born in Altoona (today part of Hamburg) in Germany in 1697 and died on the first day of the first month of Iyer in the year 1776. Until the age of 17 he studied with his father the "Haham Zvi", and then he studied in Amsterdam. In 1715 he married Rachel, the daughter of his rabbi. Mordechai HaCohen Katz, the son of Rabbi Naftali Katz - who holds the smikhat sages, and lived in Breslau. In a third marriage he married his niece, the daughter of his brother Rabbi Ephraim Ashkenazi. His family is Amdan, or Amdin. Due to the circumstances of being attacked by the leaders of the community, he resigned after four years from the position of rabbinate, and moved to his home town of Altoona, opened a Hebrew printing house and started dealing in commerce, and refused to serve in the rabbinate until the end of his days. In his book he writes (jokingly) that he used to say a blessing every day "Baruch Shelo Asani Avad (Av Beit Din - אב"ד)" (on the weight of the blessing "שלא עשני עבד"). He did not successfully combine his livelihood business with his study of the Torah: he devoted the best of his time to his compositions, which earned him a name as one of the greatest sages of his generation. He objected to the types of philosophy, and did not believe that Rambam wrote the teacher confused. In Ungarish-Brad, he taught in a yeshiva for three years, then traded in jewelry. At a printing house in Altoona, where he printed the order of the pillars of heaven. There was opposition to the arrangement, because of changes he made in the formulas, Although he received approval for his order from major rabbis in Ashkenaz.
Rabbi Amdin was one of the leaders of the resistance campaign against Shabatai Zvi, and also fought firmly against everything he saw as a Shabatai deviation. On this background, a serious dispute broke out between him and Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz, who practiced Kabbalah and was known as a miracle worker and as a writer of amulets. When some of Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz amulets came to him, he deciphered the writing on them and claimed that they contained hints of belief in Shabtai Zvi. Rabbi Emdin came out with open accusations against Rabbi Yonatan Eybshitz, causing a sharp and prolonged polemic between his supporters and those of Rabbi Eibeschitz. During the struggle, Rabbi Jacob was forced to leave Altona for Amsterdam, and only after the direct intervention of Duke Frederick VII was he allowed to return to Altona. At the end of this polemic, which provoked difficult debates between the rabbis of Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands and other European countries, and the echoes of which are still heard today, there is a consensus among Orthodox Judaism that Rabbi Yonathan Eibeschitz was not a Satanist. Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz was a moderate man, and was not dragged into a polemic against him. He published a group of letters called the Tables of Testimony and in a short explanation he presented how his enemies accused and convicted him without even a hint of what they said. But he did not try to apologize and justify and explain his actions. The majority of Israel in Ashkenaz knew his honesty and righteousness and his followers. His name rose to fame in Poland as well. The Committee of the Four Lands in Yarislav wanted to vindicate Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz and burn the charges against him, but Rabbi Yaakov Amdin stood his ground and claimed that the committee was acting on the king's orders. It should be noted that the Shabbatian researcher, Prof. Gershon Shalom, believes that Rabbi Yaakov Emdin was indeed right in his suspicions, and that Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz was a Shabbatian.
Rabbi Yaakov Amdin was a fairly fast writer and authored about fifty books. Four days before his death, and he was eighty years old, he sent Rabbi Shlomo of Dubna the omissions that had been left out in the order of the works he founded in his order. He also wrote letters to many, including Rabbi Mendelson. In one of them, they ask for "a small and easy thing about Didiya, and for me it is considered as big as a precious fortune" and for him to translate for him into the Ashkenazi language of Tzacha his article that he sent him "to respond to the one who upset the spirit of the pious minister and decreed to change a custom in" Regarding the matter of burying the deceased as a commandment for us from the mouth of the sages", he apologizes because he is heavy-mouthed "and the language of the land of Canaan Ashkenazi, I knew nothing about." Rabbinic culture at the time.
Books by Rabbi Yaakov Amdin:
- Lehem Shamaim - Commentary on the Mishnah.
- מטפחת ספרים - studies on the Zohar book and more.
- Tzitzim vePrahim - in matters of reception.
- שאילת יעב"ץ - questions and answers in Halacha. מור וקציעה - interpretations and innovations on Tor and Beit Yosef as well as on Shulchan Aruch Orach Haim.
- Oz tower.
- מגילת ספר - an autobiographical book.
- לוח ארש. Mistakes on the arrangement of a prayer house for the meticulous Raza.
- עמודי שמים - סידור - a arrangement that includes interpretations for prayers throughout the year together with all the laws and customs associated with them. Also known as the "Beit Jacob" arrangement (a name given to it by later printers).
- תורת הקנאות - about the war of the false messiah Shabbati Zvi and his successors
- שפת אמת ולשון זהורית - a counter against Rabbi Yonatan Eivshitz and about amulets written by the aforementioned.
- Ancestral tree.
- שבירת לוחות האון - a response to the book of Testimony Tablets written by Rabbi Yonathan Ibshitz to justify his amulets
- עקיצת עקרב - a counter-argument against Rabbi Yonatan Eivshitz and about amulets written by the aforementioned