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Natanson "for making a mistake and combining
two distant places" like Lubomla lLubomll and
Lublin into one town."
Yakov-Mendl Shteif, author of the Matzevat
Kodesh, also confused Lublin with Luboml.
The con fusion around Lublin-Luboml was so
great that many times it was said the Bach was not
the rabbi of Luboml but rather of Lublin. This had
echoes even as far as Germany, and the great
historian Graetz found it necessary to clarify that
the Bach was never head of the rabbinical court in
Lublin but rather in Luboml.
Even M. Steinschneider, the great Jewish
bibliographer, who was exacting in every way,
became confused about the name Luboml and in
brackets put a question mark as to whether it is
the same as Lublin."
And even YIVO, especially careful with Jewish
geographical names, in one of its publications
knew nothing of the Yiddish name Libivne. There
the Yiddish name is also listed as Luboml and in
brackets, Lubevne.
RABBIS OF LUBOML
Who Was the First Rabbi?
If we were to divide the history of the rabbis of
Luboml into periods, we would be able to connect
them with only two of the three previously determined
periods in the general history of the Jews
of Lubomlheyday or decline. We have no information
on the rabbis of the first periodat least
this writer did not come across any such material.
We first come across the name of a rabbi in
Luboml in the early 1550s, just as the prime of the
Jewish community in Luboml began.
And what about the years before?
We know of Jews in Luboml as early as 1370,
and it may be that they already were there a
decade or two earlier. Is it possible that from 1370
until 1550nearly two centuriesLuboml was
without a rabbi?
As we have seen, Luboml began to develop
long before its peak. We know that in its early
days Luboml was considered one of the four
major cities of the Chelm-Belz district. So how is
it possible that Luboml's Jews would have gone
for so long without a "local authority"a rabbi?
True, we know from Jewish history that many
THE EARLY DAYS 21
Jewish communities for many years did not have
their own rabbis, but shared one with surrounding
communities. Smaller communities, which for
many reasons, mostly financial, could not afford
their own rabbi or the kind of rabbi they wanted,
got together with other communities and engaged
a common rabbi. We know of such cases from the
history of the Jews in Poland, Lithuania, Germany,
and other lands.
We do not know of a case where a welldeveloped,
important Jewish community went
for 200 years without having its own rabbi and
instead shared with other communities one rabbinical
authority.
That is what logic would dictate, but we have
no evidence from history. So the names of previous
rabbis of Luboml remain under the dark
curtain of the last century of the Middle Ages and
the beginnings of the modern era. We may write
only of those Luboml rabbis for whom we have
concrete sources.
Rabbi Hersh Yellen
In the well-known book Tzemach Tzedek, whose
author, R. Menachem Mendl Krochmal, lived in
the 17th century close to the time of which we
speak, mention was made of the scholar R. Hersh
as rabbi of Luboml. The same term is used in a
later work, the Seder HaDorot of Yechiel
Heilperin.
Using that source, bibliographer and Jewish-
Polish cultural historian Chayim Doberish
Friedberg writes that R. Hersh was the first rabbi
in Luboml." A Rabbi Hersh from Luboml is also
mentioned in an official Polish document. The
document is dated 1556, precisely the same period
about which we speak; thus he is clearly the
same Rabbi Hersh.
In that document, promulgated by King
Zygmunt Augustus II, mention is made of the
"Jew Hersh, known as Yellen." He is called a
"doctor of the Mosaic law," as rabbis were then
often known. He was given authority to deal with
all religious matters for the Jews of Luboml.
This interesting and historically important
document of the history of the Luboml Jews reads
as follows (from a photostat of the Latin original,
with a Polish introduction):" "In the chronology