Be'er HaGolah

1595 CE–1671 CE · Acharonim · Zamut

Moses Rivkes (c. 1595–1671), known as Be'er HaGolah ('Well of the Exile'), was a Lithuanian-Polish Talmudist and Halakhic authority of the 17th century. He served as a rabbi in several communities and became renowned for his extensive glosses and novellae on the Shulhan Arukh and related works. His magnum opus, the Be'er HaGolah commentary, provided critical interpretations and reconciliations of apparent contradictions in Halakhic sources, earning him a lasting place in Jewish legal scholarship. He lived through turbulent times marked by the Chmielnicki pogroms and other persecutions of Eastern European Jewry, yet his systematic and erudite approach to Talmudic interpretation influenced generations of scholars.

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Stop 1 of 31655–1656

ZamutSamogitia, Lithuania

What they did here

As a fugitive he crossed the Zamut region bordering Prussia in the company of other scholars, the ShaCh among them, and the last of his belongings was seized by marauding Swedish soldiers.

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Be'er HaGolah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Be'er HaGolah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.