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6 LUBOML
newed by the Kahal, with the consent of the local
rabbi, R. Avrom Pollack.
Finally, the renowned R. Sirkis tells about
one Jew, Reuven, who was allowed to buy a piece
of property from a non-Jewish neighbor in order
to build something for himself. But since Reuven
bought more than he was allowed, the Kahal
forced him to follow the decree. After Reuven's
death, his heirs sold the whole house and the
surrounding property to Moyshe First, who
wanted to expand the house and build on the
property. The gaon (rabbi) was asked about this.
The scholar's answer was written in 1601.
From it we learn, first, that 50 years after its
initiation the decree of the Luboml Kahal was
still in force; that one of Luboml's householders
was called Moyshe First; and that R. Yoel Sirkis
was still serving as the av beth din (head of the
rabbinical court) in Luboml.
In 1559, after the death of the (gaon) scholar
Shalom Shachne, the unification of the Lublin-
Chelm-Belz districts was completed. Betz and
Chelm, which almost consistently record their
history together, formed a state of their own and
had a separate Va'ad (committee). Their rabbi
was the scholar and mystic R. Eliyohu, the R. of
Chelm, son of the aforementioned R. Yehuda
Aron.
The capital of the state was Chelm. Only
three other major communities could send a
representative to the Va'ad: Belz, Hrubyeshov,
and Luboml. At the time of the 1569 unification
of Lithuania and Poland, Luboml was still considered
one of the major communities in that
district."
Christian-Jewish economic relations outside
the boundaries of the town were quite lively,
especially when it came to leasing estates. A
revision of revenues from 1569 shows that
Luboml's Jews held eight parcels of land, leased
a flour mill and three lakes, and paid for the lease
of the estate with money, pepper, saffron, and
fish, for a total of 400 gold ducats. The Jews who
leased a mill around Luboml were called Laska
and Michel."
Until 1569, Volhynia belonged to the
Lithuanian grand duchy. Its Jewish inhabitants
were, naturally, subject to Lithuanian law in
reference to privileges, taxes, etc.
After the Lublin unification, when Volhynia
was torn from Lithuania and returned to the
Polish crown, the Polish legal code understandably
replaced the Lithuanian one.
In the beginning, this caused some confusion.
It caused disputes between Jews in Volhynia
and the ruling officials, who often exploited the
unclear situation to the detriment of the Jews.
The Jews of Volhynia, however, did not remain
silent. They attempted through various
means to intercede with highly placed officials in
the newly acquired territories, and influen.ce them
to take more into account the interests of the Jews
there and not cheat them by falsely interpreting
the new decrees.
However, this did not have good results.
Therefore, the Jews of Lutsk tried their luck in
attaining the intervention of the king himself. In
1576 they sent a memorandum to the Polish king,
Stefan Batory, in which they listed the grievances
inflicted upon the Jews in the newly acquired
Volhynian territories, and requested that the king
grant them the same rights accorded Jews in the
rest of Poland.
On December 1, 1576, a royal decree was
promulgated granting the Jews of Volhynia the
same rights that Jews had in all of Poland.
This had a positive effect on the development
ofJewish settlements in Volhynia. The increased
internal Jewish immigration in Poland in the
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From She 'elot Uteshuvot ("Questions and Answers"),
by Grand Rabbi Yoel Sirkis. Printed in Frankfurt am
Main by Jan Wust Press, 1697. (This illustration
continues on pages 7 and 8)