Early Life
Rabbi Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz (also known as the Shelah HaKaddosh (השל" ה הקדוש "the holy Shelah") was born in the well-known city of Prague in 1558.
His father, Rabbi Abraham bar Rabbi Shabse Sheftel Halevi, was a praised genius, author of many works (Yesh Nochlin, Emek Brochoh, Chesed Avrohom, Bris Avrohom), and disciple of Rav Moshe Isserles (Rema). He was the first teacher of Rabbi Yeshaya.
Later, the father and his whole family left Prague, went to Cracow in Poland, and went to Lublin, where Rabbi Isaiah studied at the celebrated Yeshivoh of the Maharani and studied under Rav Meir Lublin and Rav Yehoshua Falk (best known as the author of the Drisha and Prisha commentaries on the Arba'ah Turim as well as Sefer Me'iras Enayim on Shulkhan Aruch).
Marriage and Rabbinical Positions
He married Chaya, daughter of Abraham Moul of Vienna, and was a wealthy and active philanthropist, supporting Torah study, especially in Jerusalem.
At an early age, he was recognized as a great Gaon, and he took part in the meetings of the Rabbis of the Vaad Arba HaArotzos (Council of the Four Countries), together with the greatest Rabbis of his generation.
He held Rabbinical positions in various communities such as Dubno, Ostraha, Posen, Cracow, Vienna, and Frankfurt, where he headed great Yehsivos and had many students.
In 1602, Harav Yeshaya Horowitz was appointed Av Beit Din in Austria and, in 1606, Rabbi of Frankfurt.
In 1614, after serving as Rabbi in prominent European cities, he left following the Fettmilch Uprising.
Eventually, he was chosen as the Chief Rabbinic Officer of his native Prague, a position he held for seven years. At first, he shared the office with the great Rabbi Efraim Luntschitz (author of "Olelos Efraim"). Upon Rabbi Efraim's death, the Shelah remained the sole Chief Rabbinic Officer in Prague, where he stayed until he left for Eretz Yisroel in 1621.
A Big Move
He always wanted to live in the Holy Land, and when his wife died in 1620, he decided to satisfy his longing and went there. He left his comfortable position, bade farewell to his children and grandchildren, and set out on the long journey.
It was tough for him to leave his dear son, Rabbi Sheftel, who was already a Gaon himself.
Rabbi Yeshay stopped at Venice and other places on the way, where he was welcomed with great honor.
On Friday, the 6th of Kislev, at the year-end of 1621, the saintly Shelah arrived in the holy city of Jerusalem. The Ashkenazic community immediately appointed him as their Rabbi.
In the Holy Land, he arranged his Siddur, "Shaar Hashomayim" (the Gate of Heaven). He gave it this title because numerically the word "Hashomayim" equals the word Isaiah (395), and also because he arrived in Jerusalem on Friday when the Portion of the Week to be read in the Torah was Vayetze, which contains the words "Vezeh Shaar Hashomayim," The Siddur was printed by his great-grandson, Rabbi Abraham, in 5477 (1717), with the Haskomoh (written approval) of the Bach, Tosefos Yom Tov, and other great Rabbis of the period.
The year of the Shelah's settling in Jerusalem was a Shemittah year (a Sabbatical year). Because the previous year had been a year of drought and hunger, people sought to be a little lenient in observing the Shemittah. The Sheloh, however, did not agree to any leniency despite the difficulty of the situation.
Crazy Story
During the early part of his stay in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Pasha was the city governor and an honest and friendly ruler, and the Jews' position was not so unbearable.
But in 1625, a wealthy Arab from Jerusalem named Ibn Farouk bribed the Governor in Damascus and bought the ruling powers over Jerusalem. He was blind in one eye and a wicked, cruel man.
During the last Shabbos of the month of Teves, he entered the city with 300 armed soldiers and took over the rule. He started to persecute the Jews and sought all means of squeezing money out of them. On Shabbos, the 11th of Elul, he sent his soldiers into the two Synagogues of the Ashkenazim and the Sefardim and arrested 15 Rabbis, amongst them the Sheloh. He placed a huge ransom on their heads. They remained in prison until Rosh Hashanah, when they were released after superhuman efforts by the community and a large amount of ransom money. No longer sure of their lives, Rabbi Isaiah and other Ashkenazim escaped from Jerusalem and went to Tzefas (Safed) in Teves.
Shnei Luchos Habris
Later, the Shelah settled in Tiberias, where he finally completed his gigantic and magnificent work, the "Shnei Luchos Habris," which he sent to his children in Prague. Two years after he arrived in Eretz Yisroel, he finished his gigantic Shnei Luchos Habris ("Two Tablets of the Covenant").
In his many kabbalistic, homiletic, and halachic works, he stressed the joy in every action and how one should convert the evil inclination into good, two concepts that influenced Jewish thought through to the eighteenth century and greatly influenced the development of Hasidic Judaism.
The sefer is a comprehensive compilation of ritual, ethics, and mysticism. It was initially intended as an ethical will - written as a compendium of the Jewish religion.
The title page of the first edition states that the work is "compiled from both Torahs, Written and Oral, handed down from Sinai."
The work has had a profound influence on Jewish life - notably, on the early Hasidic movement, including the Baal Shem Tov; Harav Shneur Zalman of Liadi was described as a "Shelah Yid", and Shelah echoes in his work, Tanya.
The work was first published in 1648 by his son, Shabbethai Horowitz, and has been often reprinted. Harav Yechiel Michel Epstein's abbreviated form appeared in 1683.
His son, Rabbi Shabse, better known as Rabbi Sheftel, who was the Chief Rabbi of Posen and vicinity, first published the Sheloh in 1648 in Amsterdam, fifty years later, in the year 1698 (the year that the Baal Shem Tov was born), the Shelah Hakodosh was printed a second time in Amsterdam in clear letters and was in great demand.
It is a highly respected and beloved work and has been reprinted many times.
The Shelah contains explanations and commentaries on the deeper aspects of Torah and Mitzvos, the Holidays, and other facets of Jewish life. The book is filled with the spirit of holiness and righteousness, the love and fear of God, the love of the Torah, and the love of the Jews. The author rightfully earned the title of "Shiloh Hakodosh" because he was a saintly person, and his teachings were saintly.
Besides the "Sheloh Hakodosh" and the Siddur "Shaar Hashomayim," with explanations of the Prayers, Rabbi Isaiah also composed other works, including Sefer Mitzvos and Tefillin. The Shelah Hakadosh, who traveled a lot and occupied many Rabbinical positions, wielded tremendous influence, personally and through his many thousands of disciples.
Death
The holy Shelah died at the age of 70. His Yahrtzeit is 11, Nisan.
Before he departed for the Eternal World, he ordered that as soon as he died, the following announcement should be made in all the Synagogues and Study Halls (Botei Midrash) in Tiberias and Tzefas: "Friends! Let it be known that Rabbi Isaiah Halevi Segal Horowitz has died, and he ordered that no Hespedim (Eulogies) should be held in his honor. Special prayers should be offered during the first seven days and on the Yahrzeit."
The saintly Sheloh's grave is near the graves of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai and the Rambam in Tiberias.
Fascinatingly enough, the Chida writes that he found in the Seder HaDoros, who himself found in the writings of R' Leib of Slutzk that the soul of the Gaon R' Yeshayahu Horowitz had the soul of Rus in him!
Famous descendants of the Shelah included Rav Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin (known as החוזה מלובלין "The Seer of Lublin"), Reb Aaron HaLevi ben Moses of Staroselye (a distinguished student of Shneur Zalman of Liadi), the Fruchter-Langer families, Rabbi Meir Zelig Mann of Memel, Lithuania.
The Shelah wrote that the eve of the first day of the month of Sivan is the most auspicious time to pray for the physical and spiritual welfare of one's children and grandchildren. The Shelah Hakadosh writes that the optimal time for parents to recite this prayer is Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan because "that is the month when Hashem gave us His Torah, and when we began to be called his children.". He composed a special prayer for this day, known as the Tefillat HaShlah, "the Shelah's Prayer." In modern times, the custom of saying this prayer on the appointed day has become very popular among Orthodox parents.
The Shelah's Prayer (Translation)
You are Hashem, our G-d, before You created the world, and You are Hashem, our G-d, after You created the world. Forever and ever, You are our G-d. You created Your world so that Your divinity would be revealed through Your divine Torah, as our Sages said, "Bereshis, in the beginning for the Torah and for Israel."
They are Your people and Your inheritance, which You chose above all people. And You gave them Your holy Torah and brought them close to Your great name.
Because of the creation of the world and the creation of the Torah, we received from You, Hashem, our G-d, two commandments: You wrote in Your Torah: Be fruitful and multiply, and You wrote in Your Torah: And you shall teach them your children, and their meaning is the same.
You did not create the world in vain but to be inhabited, and for Your honor, You created, You formed, and You also made so that we, our children and the children of all Your people, Israel, will know Your Name and learn Your Torah.
Therefore, Hashem, King of kings, I will come to You and will beg You, my eyes raised to You, to have compassion and hear my prayer and bestow on me sons and daughters that they shall too be fruitful and multiply, they, their children and their children's children, until the end of all generations, so that they and I, and we all should engage in the study of Your holy Torah to learn and teach, to guard, to do, and to fulfill all the words of study of Torah with love.
Enlighten our eyes to Your Torah and bring our hearts to cling to Your mitzvot, to love and fear Your Name. Our merciful Father grants us all long lives endowed with blessings.
Who is like You, merciful Father, who remembers His creatures and gives them life in Your compassion? Remember us for eternal life, as Avraham, our father-Father, prayed: "that he may live before Thee." Our Rabbis (may their memory be blessed) interpreted this as "in fear of You."
Therefore, I have come to ask and beg before You that my children and my children's children shall be, eternally, worthy. That there shall not be anything unfitting in me, my children, or my children's children for all time: only peace, truth, goodness, and justice in the eyes of G-d and man.
May they be masters of Torah, masters of the written Law, masters of Mishna, masters of Talmud, masters of kabbala, masters of mitzvot, masters of Chessed, masters of noble character, and may they serve you with love and genuine fear, not with false fear. Grant them all he needs with honor; give them health, honor, strength, distinction, beauty, grace, and kindness.
May there be love, brotherhood, and peace between them. Bestow on them worthy spouses from the offspring of the "talmidei Chahamim" and the offspring of the "righteous ones." And may their spouses be like them in all that I have prayed for them, for they are all one for eternity.
You, Hashem, know all the secrets of the heart, and before You are revealed, all that is in my heart. My purpose is for the sake of Your great and holy Name and Torah.
Therefore, answer me, Hashem, for the sake of our sacred fathers Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, and then save the sons; the branches shall resemble the roots. And for David, your servant, the fourth wheel of the divine chariot, the poet who sang with divine inspiration: "Song of Levels: fortunate are all who fear Hashem, who walk in His way.
The toil of your hands, you will eat the fruit thereof, and it will bring you happiness and be good for you. Your wife is like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons are like olive plants around your table.
Behold, thus, will be blessed with the man who fears Hashem.
He will bless you, Hashem, from Tzion. See in the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. And see your sons of your sons; peace over Israel."
Please, Hashem, who hears prayer, fulfill in us the verse:
"As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Hashem, my spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in the mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Hashem, from henceforth and forever."
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be favorable before You, Hashem, my rock, and my savior.
Sources:
1. An intriguing article authored by Nissan Mindel, known for producing the official Chabad English version of "The Tanya," and a biography elucidating the foundation of the Chabad movement by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. Nissan Mindel, a distinguished Chabad Hasidic rabbi, author, and editor, made significant contributions while serving on the administrative team of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. Link to the article: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112346/jewish/Rabbi-Isaiah-Halevi-Horowitz-The-Sheloh.htm
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Horowitz
