Rav Manoach Hendel of Vienna

Early years

Rav Manoach Hendel of Vienna zt"l was the son of Shemariah Hendel. He was born in Berestechko, in Volhynia, in the Poland-Lithuania of his day, in a place that is now part of Ukraine. Little is known of his early years.

He became a talmid of the Maharshal and of the Rema. He grew into a great gaon, well versed in every branch of Torah wisdom.

Torah and leadership

In the last decades of the 16th century Rav Manoach was active in the Vaad Arba Aratzos, the Council of the Four Lands, and his signature is preserved on a number of its decisions. In 1592 he gave his approbation to a sefer dealing with the Zohar. He was a colleague of Rav Yehoshua Falk HaKohen, author of Meiras Einayim (the Sema), and of the Maharam of Lublin.

Rav Manoach was often consulted on halachic questions. One matter concerned a get given by an apostate. In another, a man who had served as a witness in many gittin was discovered to be a thief and was therefore disqualified, which cast a heavy shadow over those gittin. The Maharam of Lublin and Rav Binyamin Aharon Slonik, author of Masas Binyamin, were asked about the same case at the same time.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Manoach was the author of Manoach Levavos on Chovos HaLevavos, Manoach Matza Chen, and Chochmas Manoach on Shas.

The gedolim of his time conferred with him on halachic matters and cited him. Rav Yom Tov Lippman Heller, the Tosfos Yom Tov, quotes him in his Maadanei Yom Tov on the Rosh. Rav Avrohom Abeli Gumbiner, author of the Magen Avrohom, cites him on Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 202:14), and he is cited in the Masas Binyamin (Responsa, no. 44).

Later years and passing

Toward the end of his life Rav Manoach served as Rav of Vienna. About a month before his passing, he and Rav Yehoshua Falk HaKohen were involved in a get that a man signed and issued while lying seriously ill, on what was thought to be his deathbed. When the husband recovered, he tried to cancel the get. The matter grew into a fierce halachic debate that drew in many gedolei Yisroel of the time, and it became known as the Get of Vienna.

Most of the gedolim sided with Rav Manoach and Rav Yehoshua Falk. Among those who disagreed were the Maharam of Lublin, Rav Mordechai Yafeh, author of the Levush, and Rav Binyamin, Av Beis Din of Pozna. By then Rav Manoach had passed away, and only the Sema was still alive. He declared firmly that he himself had helped issue the get and that it was valid and kosher. The debate raged on, and the Vaad Arba Aratzos met twice a year to support the get, while the Maharam of Lublin would not be moved.

Rav Manoach passed away on Sunday, 22 Tammuz 5371 (1611), and was laid to rest in Vienna.