The Council of Four Lands
For nearly two centuries Polish Jewry governed itself: delegates of four provinces met at the Lublin and Jaroslaw fairs and legislated for hundreds of communities.
For nearly two hundred years the Jews of Poland governed themselves. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth held the largest Jewish community in the world. It suited the crown to collect the poll tax from the Jews collectively rather than individually, and this handed the communities an unusually powerful instrument of self-government. From about 1580 the Council of Four Lands took shape: Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Red Ruthenia and Volhynia.
It met twice a year—in winter at Lublin, in summer at the Jaroslaw fair. Its delegates were rabbis and elected communal heads. The Council apportioned the tax among the kehillot, appointed judges, supervised printing, settled disputes between towns, forbade recourse to gentile courts, and capped wedding expenditure so the poor would not ruin themselves imitating the rich. It also conducted policy, maintaining intercessors at the Warsaw Sejm, fighting blood libels and securing charters of protection.
After the Chmielnicki massacres the Council organised the ransom of captives and the resettlement of refugees, and declared the 20th of Sivan a fast for the martyrs of Nemirov. In 1764 the Sejm abolished it to tax Jews directly, and Polish Jewish self-government ended a few years before the partitions of Poland.
How we know
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- responsa of Bach — the Council as it appears in the correspondence of the Polish sages
- responsa of Shach — the same, a generation later
Documents of the period
- Yeven Metzulah — “like the Sanhedrin in the Chamber of Hewn Stone” — Hannover’s testimony
- the record book of the Council of Four Lands — the ordinances of the assemblies at Lublin and Yaroslav themselves
Basis: tradition.
People and places
Rema—Rabbi Moshe Isserles · Maharal of Prague · Shelah HaKadosh · Glikl of Hameln · Prague · Lublin · Shulchan Aruch · Acharonim · The Taz—Rabbi David HaLevi Segal · Kraków · Maharam of Lublin—Rabbi Meir ben Gedaliah · Maharsha—Rabbi Shmuel Eidels · Maharshal—Rabbi Shlomo Luria · The Levush—Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe · Pilpul · Poznań · The Shach—Rabbi Shabbetai HaKohen · Rabbi Jacob Emden—Yaavetz · The Sma—Rabbi Yehoshua Falk · The Bach—Rabbi Yoel Sirkis · Tosafot Yom Tov—Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller · Tzedakah · Pidyon shvuyim—the ransom of captives · The kahal—how a community was governed · Shtadlan—the intercessor · Josel of Rosheim · Takanah: when the sages establish something new · Pnei Yehoshua—Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk