HOESCHEL (Joshua) BEN SAUL

HOESCHEL (Joshua) BEN SAUL (d. 1749), German rabbi, named after his grandfather, joshua hoeschel b. jacob . He was the son-in-law of Naphtali Hirsch Mirels, dayyan in Berlin. Hoeschel is not known to have written any works, but was held in high esteem by his contemporaries as a talmudic authority. Among those who expressed regard for him was Solomon b. Aaron, the Karaite author of Appiryon Asah (1866). Of historical interest are two letters addressed to him: one from the kabbalist, Benjamin b. Eliezer of Reggio (wrongly assumed by many to have been addressed to Hoeschel b. Joseph of Cracow), and the other from Jekuthiel Gordon of Vilna. He died in Vilna. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Emden, Torat ha-Kena'ot (1860), 92; S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (19152), 115; Fuenn, Keneset, 300; Ḥ.N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 2 (1893), 75b–76a; Kaufmann, in: MGWJ, 41 (1897), 700–8. (Samuel Abba Horodezky)