R' Saul Kahana, A.B.D. Berestechko

GEDCOM Note

From Chenowicz, Moshe. Personalities and Figues: Rabbis and Notables of Wlodimierz, in Pinkas Ludmir; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Ludmir. Tel Aviv, 1962

Rabbi Saul, son of Rabbi Jakob, head of the rabbinic court of Ludmir (1741-1765)

Rabbi Saul was previously head of the rabbinic court in the community of Berestechko in Wolyn. In 1721 he gave his Pinkas Vaad Arba Aratzot [rabbinic approbation] as rabbi of this community on the book Ateret Zvi (which comprises explications of the Choshen Mishpat, Jasienica Rosielna 1722) by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch, son of Ezriel of Vilna....

After the death of his father Rabbi Jakob, Rabbi Saul became rabbi and head of the rabbinic court in the community of Ludmir. In 1742 Rabbi Saul participated in a meeting of the rabbis and donors of the Council of the Four Lands in Tyszowce and he gave his Pinkas Vaad Arba Aratzot there to the book Mari Zvi.

In 1742 Rabbi Saul gave his Pinkas Vaad Arba Aratzot at the meeting of [the] Council in Novokostyantyniv to the book Beit Abraham (Berlin 1743) by the famed Rabbi Abraham Hakohen, head of the rabbinic court of Tarłów (Lublin Province)....

Rabbi Saul occupied the position of “trustee” of the Province of Wolyn in the Council of the Four Lands, and he filled this position all the days of his participation in this central council of Polish Jewry. In 1751 he participated in a meeting of the Council which took place in Novokostyantyniv together with the noted sage Rabbi Shlomo of Chelm, author of the book Mirkevet ha-Mishne, and he signed there as:

“the insignificant Saul son of the late Rabbi the famous great light Our Teacher Rabbi Jakob the memory of the righteous is for the world to come who lives in the holy community of Ludmir and its environs.”

He gives there his Pinkas Vaad Arba Aratzot for the publication of the Amsterdam Talmud printed by the brothers Joseph and Jakob Proops and the brothers Aaron and Zanwil sons of Rabbi Moshe Segal of Chernivtsi [Lesser Poland].

The well known historian Simon Dubnow mentions the rabbi of Ludmir, Rabbi Saul, in the Russian Jewish weekly Voskhod (October 1894). He is also mentioned in the Ostroh pinkas [booklet of proceedings] from 1765 when he was still alive.

Among the sons of Rabbi Saul of Ludmir, noteworthy are Rabbi Pinchas and Rabbi Ephraim Zalman. Rabbi Pinchas himself was among the most honored residents of Ludmir. In his later years he resided in Ostroh near his son, Rabbi Arye Jehuda Leib, and became one of the leaders and a gabbai [sexton] of the hevra-kadisha [burial society] there. Rabbi Pinchas of Ludmir's second son was [Yissachar Ber], rabbi of Tul'chyn in Podolia.

Rabbi Ephraim Zalman was Av Bet Din (head of the rabbinic court) in Berestechko and later Av Bet Din in Dubno. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Israel (Harif), Av Bet Din in Zaslawye and Ostroh.

Rabbi Saul of Ludmir's brother (son of the aforementioned Rabbi Jakob) was Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Av Bet Din in Biala near Brisk, Lithuania (Brest, Belarus today), son-in-law of the sage Rabbi Simcha Hakohen Rapoport Av Bet Din of Lublin.

This Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was the father of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Av Bet Din in the communities of Lokachi in Wolyn, author of the book Chemdat Zvi, whose son Rabbi Arye Leib was the father of the sage Rabbi Simcha Natan Ellenberg the leading rabbinic authority in Lvov (after the author of the Yeshuot Jakob).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Moshe Chenowicz, Rabbis and Notables of Wlodimierz, in Pinkas Ludmir; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Ludmir. Tel Aviv, 1962

Descendants of Rabbi Efraim Fishel ben Arieh Leib of Ludmir (1671 - 1719) (Rabbi Efraim the Lobbyist, Trustee of the House of Israel):

...His grandson Rabbi Shaul, son of Rabbi Yaacov, was the chief justice of the rabbinical court of Ludmir (1741-1765) and trustee of Volhynia and the Council of the Four Lands. Five generations of his descendants held the position of rabbi of Ludmir, Kramnitz [Kremenetz], Biali, Lukatash, Brastsheko [Berestechko], Dovna [Dubno], Austra, Tultshin, and Lvov."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Documents and Inscriptions, vol. III, no. 2058; summarized in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906:

1758: "The municipal records of Kremenets record a protest by the Volin district trustees (the rabbi of Kremenets, R' Arye Leyb, and the rabbi of Ludmir, R' Saul) against the communities of Ostra and Lutsk. The trustees claimed that the community of Ostra refused to pay the expenses, which approached 38,000 gold pieces, incurred by the district trustees while they attended to the Jews' affairs in that community. A District Council convened in Rachmanov to deal with these expenses certified their justice, but the community of Ostra did not pay even the amount that it acknowledged."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Biber, Menachem Mendel. Markezet LeGedolei Ostraha [The Great Men of Ostrog]. Berdichev, 1907, pp. 187-8: 1764-5 [5525]: The Ostroh burial society sent him cherry liquor.