Talmud commentary
Defending Rashi through analysis: the Pnei Yehoshua continues the way of the Maginei Shlomo and resolves the objections of the Tosafists to Rashi’s commentary, and it goes down to the finest details of every passage. Although the method of study accepted in recent generations is far from his way, the book enjoys great popularity in the yeshivot.
Born in Krakow in 1680, he served as rabbi of Lemberg, Berlin, Metz and Frankfurt am Main, and died in Offenbach in 1756. He wrote the series of books Pnei Yehoshua on the Babylonian Talmud, in which he explains the Talmud’s passages according to Tosafot and Rashi, by way of analysis, inquiry, reasoning and pilpul. According to his introduction he began to write the book in fulfilment of a vow, after surviving the explosion of an explosives store.
The writings of Jacob Joshua Falk can be read on Sefaria, a free library of Jewish texts. A title opens the text itself.
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The archive doesn’t yet record Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk’s teachers, so the road to Sinai can’t be drawn yet.