Maharsham

The Maharsham was the rabbi the whole Jewish world wrote to. R. Shalom Mordechai HaKohen Schwadron (1835-1911), the Maharsham of Berezhany (Brzeżany), was the leading Galician halachic authority (posek) of his generation, receiving more religious-legal questions (shaylas) by mail than perhaps any rabbi of his era — on farming during the sabbatical year (shemitta), on early-modern technology, and on the tangled marriage and identity cases thrown up by mass emigration. His nine-volume Teshuvot Maharsham responsa addresses this extraordinary range of late-19th-century practical questions and remains a first-stop reference for later authorities (Acharonim). He served as chief judge of the rabbinic court (Av Beit Din) of Berezhany for over 40 years.