Joshua Falk

Yehoshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk (1555 – 29 March 1614) was a Polish Halakhist and Talmudist, best known as the author of the Drisha and Prisha commentaries on the Arba'ah Turim as well as Sefer Me'irat Enayim (סמ"ע) on Shulkhan Arukh.

Many celebrated rabbis were his pupils, among them being Joshua Höschel ben Joseph of Kraków, the author of Maginei Shlomo.

In 1611 Falk and Enoch Hendel ben Shemariah issued a bill of divorce at Vienna which occasioned lengthy discussions among the celebrated rabbis of the time, including Meir Lublin and Mordecai Yoffe.

The German name was chosen to fit the Hebrew one: thus "Zvi" or "Naftali" went with "Hirsch", and "Zev" or "Binjamin" with "Wolf".

Beit Yisrael is a twin commentary on the Tur, composed of the Perishah, a straightforward explanation, and the Derishah, deeper discussions on specific problems.

Woman at the tombstone of Joshua Falk in the Old Jewish cemetery in Lwow (1920s).
The American Israelite describes the scholarship of "Bella Cohen" (Bayla Falk), wife of Joshua Falk