June 26 1629 – 5 Tammuz 5389
Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654), author of the popular Tosfot Yom-Tov commentary on the Mishna and a rabbinical judge in Prague who’d served in that capacity for 28 years, was imprisoned on charges of insulting both Christianity and his country. Legend had it that these were false accusations concocted against him by wealthy merchants from the Jewish community, after a committee he’d headed concluded that the heavy taxes borne by the Jews of Prague should be divided up among the congregation according to each family’s means. Court Jew and financier Jacob Bassevi, who owed Rabbi Heller a favor, managed to commute his sentence from execution to a heavy fine, on condition that he resign his public position as Prague’s chief rabbi and leave the country. Heller spent two years paying off the fine, then left Prague for Ukraine and later Poland, eventually becoming chief rabbi of Krakow.