Creator Bio
Joel Sirkes
1561–1640
Born in Lublin, Joel Sirkes was active in the regional Jewish administrative organization the Council of the Four Lands and a chief rabbi in Lublin, Brest-Litosvsk, and Kraków. He is known as the Baḥ after the acronym of his work Bayit ḥadash (New House), his commentary on Jacob ben Asher’s Arba‘ah turim (Four Columns), the work on which Joseph Karo’s legal code the Shulḥan ‘arukh was ultimately based. Sirkes is also the author of a collection of responsa.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Bayit ḥadash (New House): On Bowing during Prayer
“He goes back four cubits etc.”
This implies that he must move backwards, but not forwards or to the sides. [ . . . ] It seems that this action was instituted by the sages only for an individual…
Primary Source
She’elot u-teshuvot yeshanot (Old Responsa): On Marital Deception
This rabbinic responsum, a “response” to a question of Jewish law, addresses the issue of marital deception and its legal ramifications.
Primary Source
Bayit ḥadash (New House): Introduction
Behold, I am aged and gray-headed—I know not the day of my death [see Genesis 27:2]! And when am I going to provide for my own house (Genesis 30:30), which I built, and for my children…