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The Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland was the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764. Seventy delegates from local kehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community. The "four lands" were Greater Poland, Little Poland, Podolia and Volhynia. Lublin (pronounce: [lublin]) is the biggest city in eastern Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodship with a population of 355,954 (2004). ...
Events March 1 - Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. ...
1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
A shtadlan, also known as the court Jew, was an intercessor figure who represented interests of the local Jewish community (such as of a towns ghetto), and worked as a lobbyist pleading for the safety of Jews with the outside authorities of Medieval Europe. ...
Greater Poland (also Great Poland; Polish: Wielkopolska, German: Grosspolen, Latin: Polonia Maior) is one of the historical regions of Poland. ...
Lesser Poland voivodship since 1999 Little Poland or Lesser Poland (Polish Małopolska, Latin: Polonia Minor) is one of the historical regions of Poland. ...
Historical arms of Podolia The region of Podolia (Polish: Podole, Ukrainian: Podillya) lies in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine that correspond to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. ...
Volhynia (Wołyń in Polish; Волинь, Volyn’ in Ukrainian; also called Volynia, Volyň in Czech) comprises the historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Pripyat and Western Bug. ...
The terms "Council of Three Lands" and "Council of Five Lands" have also been used for the same body. In the latter case the fifth region is Volhynia. Volhynia (Wołyń in Polish; Волинь, Volyn’ in Ukrainian; also called Volynia, Volyň in Czech) comprises the historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Pripyat and Western Bug. ...
Place in Jewish European life The great number of the Jewish population of Poland, its importance in the industrial life of the country, and the peculiarities of the political and class organization of the Polish commonwealth ("Rzeczpospolita") were the reasons why the Jews of Poland formed a separate class enjoying liberal autonomy within the sphere of their communal and spiritual interests, the outcome of which was their exemplary communal organization. A Jewish community, with its administrative, judicial, religious, and charitable institutions, constituted a unit of self-government. The term "Kahal" denoted both the community (a communitry was also known as a Kahilat Kodesh or Holy Community) and the autonomous communal administration, the two concepts being identical. The administrative functions: the assessment of state and communal taxes, the supervision of charitable institutions, etc. of the Kahal were performed by elective Kahal elders, while its rabbis ("doctores Judæorum") had charge of religious and judicial affairs. Rzeczpospolita (pronounced: , zhech-poss-POH-lee-tah) is a Polish calque translation of the Latin expression res publica (public affair). It has been used in Poland since at least 16th century, originally to denote any democratic state. ...
Number of delegates and frequency of meetings During the second half of the seventeenth century the sessions of the Council occurred once or twice a year, more frequently at Yaroslav than at Lublin. The number of delegates can not be exactly ascertained. One source notes that one representative to the Council was elected from each Kahal, and that to these Kahal delegates were added the six leading rabbis of Poland. It appears from the Kahal pinkeses that only the most important Kahals of each region sent their delegates to the Council.
The capitals (Poznań, Kraków, Lwów, and Ostrog) of the "four lands" each sent two or even more. The signatures of fifteen to twenty-five delegates—-though often the signatures of the six rabbis only-—are usually found attached to the extant decisions of the wa'ads. The total number of delegates, together with the rabbis, evidently reached thirty.
In the eighteenth century the operations of the Council became more and more limited; its sessions took place less regularly, mostly at Jaroslaw. One of the last important congresses was that held at Jaroslaw in the fall of 1753. Among other matters considered was the famous dispute between the rabbis Jacob Emden and Eybeschütz over the Shabbethaian movement, resulting in the latter's acquittal on the charge of heresy. Jacob Emden was a Jewish rabbi, Talmud scholar, and opponent of the Sabbatians. ...
In 1764 the Polish Diet ordered Jewish general congresses to be discontinued (Vol. Legum, vii. 50); and in this way the activity of the Council of Four Lands came to an end. The subsequent partition of Poland among Russia, Austria, and Prussia, changing, as it did, the whole Kahal system, was unfavorable to the existence of such central autonomous bodies as the Council.
Activity Its activity may be divided into four branches: (1) legislative; (2) administrative; (3) judicial; and (4) spiritual and cultural.
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