Shabbetai ha-Kohen Katz

Shabbetai ben Meir ha-Kohen Katz, also known as the Shakh, was born in Amstibovo in Lithuania, to a rabbinic family. He was related by marriage to Moses Isserles. Shabbetai’s time as communal leader was marked by the pogroms of 1648 and 1649. He was later appointed to the rabbinic court in Vilna. In 1655, he fled Vilna along with the rest of the Jewish community to escape the fighting between Polish and Swedish forces, and settled in Holešov (Moravia) where he lived for the rest of his life. His most famous work is Sifte kohen (Lips of the Priest), a commentary on the two parts of the Shulḥan ‘arukh, which he published in Kraków in 1646. This publication sparked a heated debate with another legal authority and commentator of the time, R. David ben Samuel Halevi. His Megilat ‘efah (Scroll of Terror) is a literary work commemorating the victims of the Khmel’nyts’kyi massacres and treatises on a number of halakhic issues.