an eminent Polish Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek (expert in Jewish law). Isserles was born in Kraków, Poland. His father, Israel ben Josef (known as Isserl), was a prominent talmudist and independently wealthy, who had probably headed the community; his grandfather, Jehiel Luria, was the first rabbi of Brisk. (In an era which preceded the common use of surnames, Moses became known by his patronymic, Isserles.) He studied in Lublin under Rabbi Shalom Shachna, who would later become his father-in-law.
