Emunath Shmuel [responsa]

THE R. NACHUM DOV BER FRIEDMAN OF SADIGURA COPY The author was one of the foremost talmudic scholars and preachers of his generation. After the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49, he fled to Vilna where he became a member of the Beth Din of the Chelkath Mechokek together with the Shach, R. Shabbetai Ha-kohen and the Shaar Ephraim, the grandfather of R. Yaakov Emden. Subsequently he served as Rabbi of many important communities, including Cracow, Brisk and Frankfurt. His major works include Birkath HaZevach on Kodashim; Birkath Shmuel, kabbalistic sermons; Tifereth Shmuel on the Rosh, and others. Many of his respona are cited as a basis for rulings by later authorities to the present. One of his controversial rulings here is responsum number 26, where he states that although in the times of the Talmud one teacher sufficed for 25 pupils, in this generation “when our hearts have been reduced to the size of hole in a thin needle, it would be preferable that the equivalent of ten, or at most twelve students would be properly supervised.”