Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel HaLevi Horowitz, Baal Vavei HaAmmudim

Shabtai Sheftel Horowitz (Hebrew: שבתי הורוויץ‎‎; c. 1590 – 1660) was a rabbi and talmudist, probably born in Ostrog, Volhynia. He was the son of the kabbalist Isaiah Horowitz, and at an early age married the daughter of the wealthy and scholarly Moses Charif of Lublin. With his father he seems to have gone to Prague, where he occupied a position as preacher; from Prague he went as rabbi to Fürth, whence he was called to Frankfurt am Main about 1632, and finally to Vienna about 1650. There he died on April 12, 1660.

Horowitz wrote additions to his grandfather Abraham's Emeḳ Berakah (which appeared first in the Amsterdam edition of 1729), additions to his father's prayer-book, and a treatise on religious ethics under the title Vave Ha-Ammudim. This work he modestly designated as an introduction to his father's celebrated work Shnei Luchot Ha-Brit (The Two Tablets of the Covenant), with which it is always printed as an appendix. He also wrote an ethical testament (Ẓawwa'ah, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, n.d., often reprinted). It contains, besides some very charitable teachings, exhortations to strictness in ritual practise and in kabbalistic studies. Shabbethai further wrote some prayers (included in his father's prayer-book), especially a selichah for the 20th of Sivan.

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From: "A. Marmorstein" <mehadrin@aol.com>

Subject: Re: [ravsig] Horowitz genealogy back to Spain

Date: December 7, 2015 at 4:05:06 PM PST

To: "Joseph Gilad" <sujo1@bezeqint.net>

Cc: "E. Randol Schoenberg" <randols@bslaw.net>

There is no question that there is a legend that Horowitz's are descended from Benvenisti Halevi in Spain. The question is how authentic is that story and when was it first recorded. One of the elders of the family is Abraham (son of Shabtai) Horowitz (1540-1615). At the end of his book Yesh Nochlin they published the ethical will of his grandson Rabbi Sheftel (Shabtai) Halevi Horowitz (1590-1660) who writes very strongly about the importance of knowing one's family history:

As is well known the third destruction (after the destruction of the 2 temples in Jerusalem) in the years 1648 and 1649 caused massive loss of life and also caused confusion about family identity. The sages of that time tried to salvage the family lineages but there was a limit to how much they could do, and there is reason to fear that in later times people will claim to be part of a distinguished family or to place a blemish in a holy seed. Therefore it is important for anyone who lives in such a time to write a clear pedigree and leave it for his children so that they may know precisely from whom they are descended. I therefore wish to tell you my beloved young and wise son Isaiah (SG"L) that you are my son, and I am the son of the Gaon and pious Rabbi Yeshaye SG"L author of Shnei Luchos Habris, grandson of Rabbi Avrohom son of Rabbi Sheftel, author of Emek Brachah, and Rav Sheftel was the son of Rabbi Yeshaye SG"L and he (Rabbi Yeshaye) was the son-in-law of the prince Akiva of Oben (OBuda, now part of Budapest) who is buried in the holy community of Prague near the grave of my mother. My mother Chaya was said in her time to have performed all the good deeds of teh matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. She was the daughter of a Torah scholar, who was also a great philanthropist and her motehr too was from a great family the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Charif (the sharp mind) son of Rabbi Israel of Lublin, and all of them were of pure family lineage. I have written this not that I wish to boast of it just that you and my daughter shopuld know who you are and who are your ancestors, and you should instruct your children, and they to their children for all time, for the Holy One blessed be He only rests His presence on those of pedigree.

Now if Rav Sheftel Horowitz, the son of Rabbi Yeshaye Horowitz, writing between 1650 and 1660 and recalling his family lineage with pride did not include the prior generations before Rabbi Yeshaye Horowitz (the 1st), and the careful genealogies of the family only allude to the Benveniste connection as כפי המסופר or מספרים במשפחתנו and only those who wrote much later incorporated it as documented fact, shouldn't we consider it more of a tradition and legend than established with certainty.

On the other hand since I am also an Epstein descendant of the Benveniste Halevi family of Spain and they came via Frankfurt and I think documented the connection more, I don't have to worry about having some kind of ancestry in Gerona!

Best wishes

Avrohom Marmorstein

רבי שבתי שפטל הלוי הורוביץ (לעיתים: שעפטל סג"ל; ה'שנ"ב, 1592 – כ"ח בניסן ה'ת"ך, 9 באפריל 1660) היה רב וראש ישיבה מגדולי יהדות אשכנז בדורו. דרשן קהילת פראג ורבן של פיורדא, פרנקפורט, פוזנא ווינה. הוא עורך הספר "שני לוחות הברית" של אביו, רבי ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ, ונודע על שם ספרו ווי העמודים, ועל שם צוואתו המוסרית שנדפסה בסוף ספר "יש נוחלין".

ביוגרפיה
נולד לרבי ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ הנודע בספרו "שני לוחות הברית". למד בעיקר מפי אביו ומפי רבי שלמה אפרים מלונטשיץ. בגיל 17 נישא לבתו של רבי משה חריף רבן של קרמניץ ולבוב. חמיו היה מגדולי דורו ולאחר נישואיו התגורר הזוג לצד הורי האישה והוא למד עם חמיו. גיסו מנישואיו אלה היה הרב ברוך אברהם כ"ץ רפפורט (תכ"ח - ה'תק"ו, 1668-1746), רבן של שוואבך ופיורדא. אשתו זו נפטרה בצעירותה והוא נישא בשנית לפייגל בת משה הלוי יאליש (קרי: יוליש) מקרקוב.

עוד לפני שנת 1620 הקים ישיבה בביתו שבפראג, ועם עליית אביו לארץ ישראל בשנת 1621 (ה'שפ"א), התמנה לתפקיד הדרשן של קהילת פראג. תפקיד זה הביא לפרסומו, וב-1628 (ה'שפ"ח) התמנה לכהן כרבה של פיורדא. במשך ארבע שנים הנהיג את הקהילה היהודית בעיר ועמד בראש ישיבת פיורדא, ואולם בשנת 1632 נחרבה העיר במהלך מאורעות מלחמת שלושים השנים והוא נאלץ לעזוב את העיר. הוא קיבל את משרת רבנות פרנקפורט דמיין וכיהן בה במשך תשע שנים.

אחרי פטירת רבי משה ר' מנדלש ב-1641 (ה'ת"א) נענה לבקשת קהילת יהודי פוזנא ועבר לכהן כרב העיר, ובשנת 1658 (ה'תי"ח) קיבל את משרת רבנות העיר וינה.

נפטר בווינה בכ"ח בניסן ה'ת"ך 9 באפריל 1660 ונקבר בבית הקברות היהודי ברוסאו.

בנו היה רבי ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ (השני), רבן של פיורדא ופרנקפורט. בן נוסף הוא יוסף שמואל הלוי ביליצר.