Wernikovski, Judah

Russian Talmudical educator; born in Slonim, government of Grodno, 1823; died in Jerusalem Feb. 20, 1901. In his childhood he was known as an "'illui," or prodigy in Talmudical learning. He was married at the age of eleven; he was afterward sent to the yeshibah of Volozhin; and in 1840 he went to Wilna and studied under R. Israel Lipkin. Though ordained rabbi, he preferred to teach; and, settling in his native town, he gathered around him a number of men who studied Talmud under him. In 1861 he became "rosh yeshibah" in Slonim, and continued in that position until 1900, when he went to the Holy Land to spend his last days. He was the author of "Pene Yehudah," on the tractates Shabbat and Ketubot (Wilna, 1871-72); "Leḳeṭ Yehudah," sermons (ib. 1872); and "Pene Yehudah," on Baba Ḳamma and Keritot (Warsaw, 1890).

Bibliography:

  * Aḥiasaf, 5662, pp. 428-429.



E. C. P. Wi.