(1638-1702). Rabbi and talmudic authority. A descendent of Judah Löw Ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague, Bacharach grew up in Leipnik, where his father was rabbi. The family moved to Worms in 1650, when Moses Samson became the communal rabbi there. Married at 15, Bacharach spent the next six years studying at his father-in-law's home in Fulda. He was impressed by the messianic claims of Shabbetai Tsevi, and even after these had proved false still called him "our Teacher." In 1666, Bacharach was appointed rabbi and head of the rabbinical court in Koblenz, but was forced to resign three years later. From 1670 he lived in Worms but once it was occupied by the troops of Louis XIV (1689), he fled to Metz and then wandered from one city to another in the Rhineland. In 1699, prematurely aged and infirm, Bacharach was elected rabbi of Worms. To succeed his grandfather and father in that prestigious office was a long-delayed satisfaction.
That same year (1699), his collection of 238 Responsa appeared, bearing the title Ḥavvot Ya'ir---a phrase taken from Numbers 32:41 and incorporating the author's name. This volume displays Bacharach's familiarity with mathematics, astronomy, and music, as well as his mastery of rabbinics. The most extensive of his works, it was printed with the help of a relative, Samson Wertheimer, the Viennese court Jew. One responsum discusses the Oral Law, another expresses support for the building of schools and the teaching of pedagogics. Bacharach would not permit an inquirer to cross a river on the Sabbath in order to attend synagogue; he called for a person who had drunk unkosher wine to be punished; and he was offended by a father's wish, expressed in the man's will, that his only child (a daughter) should recite Kaddish in his memory. Bacharach felt that if such a request were to be granted, each individual might then choose his own interpretation of the Halakhah.
