DAVID (Tevele) BEN NATHAN OF LISSA

DAVID (Tevele ) BEN NATHAN OF LISSA (d. 1792), Galician rabbi. Born in Brody, David served as rabbi of Horochow and, from 1774 until his death, of Lissa. He was in halakhic correspondence with Ezekiel *Landau and Akiva b. Moses *Eger. In the controversy over the *ClevesGet he supported Israel *Lipschuetz; his responsum on this subject appears in Or Yisrael. Another of his responsa is found in the *Penei Aryeh (no. 30) of Aryeh Leib b. Ḥayyim *Breslau. In 1774 David gave his approbation to the Yein Levanon of N.H. *Wessely, but when he realized the true aim of the educational reformers he attacked Wessely's plan in a sermon, accusing him of a desire "to stifle young children in the bud and shut the portals of Torah and faith against them" (1782). Wessely countered in letter 4 of Divrei Shalom ve-Emet (Berlin, 1785). Though Hirschel b. Aryeh Loeb Levin agreed to David's request to use his influence with the Berlin community to forbid the publicizing of Wessely's writings, Moses *Mendelssohn and David *Friedlaender prevented him from carrying it out. Nefesh David, comprising short sermons on the weekly scriptural readings, was published posthumously by David's grandson, A.S. Amkraut, in 1878. The second part, entitled Mikhtav le-David, consists of learned discussion on the Talmud and Codes. zechariah mendel (d. 1809), one of his three sons, was appointed dayyan of Lissa and, after his father's death, rabbi of Inowroclaw.

bibliography:

Graetz, in: mgwj, 20 (1871), 465–9; L. Lewin, Geschichte der Juden in Lissa (1904), 192–204; idem, in: jjlg, 12 (1918), 165–97; Waxman, Literature, 3 (1960²), 117f.; Z. Horowitz, Kitvei ha-Ge'onim (1928), 62f.; Gelber, in: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 6 (1955), 57, 328.

[Yehoshua Horowitz]