Rabbi Joseph (“Joske”) Frankel-Teomim, A.B.D. Cracow

R Joseph [Joske] Fraenkel-Teomim, A.B.D. Krakow, was born in Zulz [Poland], c1695, the son of R Yechezkiel Shraga Yehoshua Feiwel Fraenkel-Teomim (c1654-c1733) and his wife, Perl (Leib) Teomim (1666-1722). Through his paternal grandmother, Beila (Wahl-Katzenellenbogen) Teomim (c1610-1669), he was a great-great-grandson of R Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen (c1541-1617), by legend, king of Poland for 24 hours in 1587.

Joseph spent his early adulthood in Lissa, but later moved to Krakow where he was Av Beit Din [A.B.D.]. He died there in 1758.

He is often confused with other Joseph Teomims. Passages from "Die Familie Teomim" [Lowenstein] state the following: "Josef Joske Teomim, rabbi in Krakow, is described by individual researchers as the son of Chiskija Josua Feibel (see Walden HWS 58, No. 106), while others incorrectly confuse him with Isack Josef Teomim [his nephew, also a Rabbi at Krakow]."

He is also confused with the much younger Joseph Teomim, A.B.D. Bursztyn.

Additionally, Joseph Teomim of Bursztyn has been identified as marrying two different wives. "The Unbroken Chain", Chapter IV, Introduction, p. 244: "R. Joseph, A.B.D. Bursztyn... married Sheindel, daughter of R. Zvi Hirsch Ashkenazi, A.B.D. Bursztyn (grandson of the Chacham Zvi -- see Cahpter XIII), but another source (Joshua Wallerstein) states he married a daughter of R. Moses Phineas Harif (Chapter VII - Branch B)."

This is significant in that these two women were nearly two generations apart. It is certain that R' Joseph Teomim of Bursztyn -- who was b. in the 1720s -- was married to Sheindel Ashkenazi, but impossible that he would have married the daughter of R' Moses Phineas Harif, a woman who was almost certainly born, at the very latest, in the early 1690s. From this, it can be concluded that another "confusion error" has been made, with the daughter of R' Moses Phineas Harif being, in actuality, the wife of R' Joseph ("Joske") Teomim of Krakow.