Rabbi Yehuda ben Yosef Heller-Kahana--
Kuntras hasefeikos
Rabbi Yehuda ben Yosef Heller-Kahana, great-great-grandson of Tosefos Yom Tov, is generally recognized as the first rabbi of Sziget, Hungary. Rabbi Yehuda was born in 1738 in Kalusz, a town in eastern Galicia (now Kalus, Ukraine). He was one of five known sons of Yosef Heller-Kahana, the rabbi of Kalusz, which had a Jewish community as far back as the 16th century. Rabbi Yosef was born in Kalusz in 1715 and died there in November 1771. His sons Chaim, Mordechai, Aryeh Leib, and Daniel were also rabbis. As a young man Yehuda operated a tavern in a nearby village. After his business failed he moved to Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), about 100 km to the north, and found work as a tutor for the children of a well-to-do family.
After meeting Joseph Teomim, a distant relative of his father's who was a Talmudic scholar as well as a tutor, Rabbi Yehuda decided to continue his studies and compiled Kuntras haSefeikos. Later, with his brother Aryeh Leib, Yehuda, published Ketzot haChoshen. As a result of the attention this work attracted, Yehuda was named rabbi in Munkacs (Mukachevo, Ukraine), northwest of Sziget, and then Nagyszollos (Vynohradav, Ukraine), about half-way between Sziget and Munkacs. His brother Aryeh Leib became the rabbi in Stryj, northwest of Kalusz.
According to some sources, it was common to select a rabbi's son or son-in-law as his successor. The larger cities would often invite a rabbi from a smaller town while smaller towns would often ask the leading rabbis of the time to "recommend" a star disciple. Although there were few "official" Yeshivas, the rabbi of nearly every large community had at least a small group of disciples who studied under him. It was also customary for some of the community's wealthier residents to fund personal "study halls" and support ten or more full-time talmudic students. Students studied as long as it was possible or practical for them. In nearly every community there were (in addition to the Rabbi) a sizeable number of full-time talmudic scholars who were
Rabbi Yehuda ben Yosef and members of his family are buried in Sighetu Marmatie, Romania. Because Kohanim may not have contact with the dead, his grave (top) and those of his immediate famiy are enclosed in a separate structure called an ohel. The Ohel Kohanim (bottom picture) is built into the cemetery wall and has a window that allows Kohanim to pray at the graves without going into the cemetery. (Source: Rabbi Shlomo Katz)
Kalusz, Galicia, is identified as Halicz and shown near the top of this 1882 map published in Edinburgh. Sziget, called N. Szigeth, is across the border on the lower left.
generally supported by wealthy individuals or by the community. "Rabbis" were ordained by elder scholars, the leading rabbis of the generation. Often students would travel to other towns to be tested in order to receive ordination by various leading rabbis.
Although some sources identify R. Zvi ben Moses Abraham (d. 1771) as the first rabbi of Sziget, most confer this title on Rabbi Yehuda, who was appointed in 1802 and served there until his death in 1819. The 1785-87 census found 142 Jews living in Sziget but there are no Kahans listed in a 1784 census of Sziget's Jewish heads of households. By 1830-35, there were 431 Jews in Sziget and the Kahan family had become became well-known in this center of orthodox Judaism and Chassidism, despite the fact that they were often at odds with the community’s Chassidic leaders.