Shelah HaKadosh השל"ה הקדוש
author of «Shnei Luchot HaBrit», joining law, Kabbalah and ethics
Rabbi Yeshayahu HaLevi Horowitz served as rabbi of Frankfurt, Poznań and Prague, among the most respected men of his generation. In 5381, after his wife's death, he left everything and went up to the Land of Israel, becoming rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem. The Turkish pasha imprisoned him for ransom; released, he moved to Safed and then Tiberias, where he died in 5390.
His book «Shnei Luchot HaBrit» — the Two Tablets of the Covenant, from which he takes his name — is arranged as a circle of life: weekdays, Sabbath, each festival, marriage, raising children, prayer, repentance. In every subject he joins halakhah, Talmudic explanation, the kabbalistic meaning according to the Arizal, and practical moral instruction. It is a book for the home rather than the academy, and in Eastern Europe it was read for generations beside the Shulchan Aruch.
The well-known «prayer of the Shelah», which parents recite for their children before the new moon of Sivan, is his, and became one of the most widespread texts of popular piety.
His influence on Hasidism was profound.