(ca. 1495–1558), rosh yeshivah and rabbi in Lublin; chief rabbi of Poland.Shalom Shakhnah ben Yosef was born into one of the richest Jewish families of Poland. His father Yosef (Yoska) and grandfather Shakhnah were successful farmers of customs duties in Poland. He moved from Lviv to Lublin in about 1504. After Yosef’s death in 1507, Shakhnah maintained the business, but subsequently turned to Torah study and a rabbinical career. Although he studied in Poznań and may also have spent some time in Ashkenazic yeshivas in northern Italy, his main teacher was Ya‘akov Pollak of Kraków. Shakhnah, who eventually directed a yeshiva in Lublin, was considered to be Pollak’s heir and successor and was a central figure among rashe yeshivot (heads of yeshivas) of Poland in the generation following his teacher, beginning in about 1522. Shakhnah’s public standing depended to a great degree on connections he and members of his family maintained with the authorities, including the court of King Sigismund I. In 1541, Shakhnah was officially appointed chief rabbi of Poland by the king. In the literature of the period, Shakhnah’s court in Lublin is described several times as “the great court” or even “the true great court,” expressions that clearly reflect its senior status among the Jewish communities of Poland. Shakhnah’s image as a historical figure, however—and, apparently, his actual status—were mainly determined by his being the most prominent rosh yeshivah during the formative period of the Jewish community of Poland, which was gradually asserting itself as the most important Ashkenazic center for Torah study of the time. Shakhnah gained the reputation as one of the fathers of the pilpul system, of which Pollak, his teacher, is regarded as the founder.Shakhnah’s yeshiva in Lublin attracted students from distant communities within Poland as well as from abroad. One student was Ḥayim ben Betsal’el, the brother of Yehudah Leib, Maharal of Prague, who came there from Poznań. In an introduction to one of his books, Ḥayim ben Betsal’el tells about studying with Shakhnah; his fellow student, Mosheh Isserles of Kraków, later said of his teacher that “all the great scholars of this land are his disciples.”More: https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Shakhnah_Shalom