Kahana, Jacob ben Abraham

KAHANA, JACOB BEN ABRAHAM (d. 1826), rabbinical scholar in Vilna. His father was rabbi at Brestowitz in the province of Grodno. Supported by his father-in-law, Issachar Baer, the brother of *Elijah of Vilna and one of the prominent rabbis of that town, he devoted himself to study. On the death of his father-in-law, he was appointed by the communal leaders of Vilna as trustee of the local charities. He is the author of a commentary in three parts on tractate Eruvin: on the tractate in the Babylonian Talmud, the Tosefta, and the Jerusalem Talmud respectively. Each section has a different title but the whole work was given the general title Ge'on Ya'akov. It was published, together with Joseph Padua's two-page pamphlet Zikhron Yosef (1863), by Raphael Nathan Neta *Rabbinovicz, who wrote a lengthy introduction containing a biography of the author. Kahana occupied no rabbinical position, but was held in the highest esteem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

R.N.N. Rabbinovicz, in: J. Kahana, Ge'on Ya'akov (1863), introd.; S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (1915²), 239f.; L. Ginzberg, Perushim ve-Ḥiddushim ba-Yerushalmi, 1 (1941), 1x (Eng. introd.), 128f. (Heb. introd.).