Saul ben Judah Wahl

Saul ben Judah Wahl was a merchant and parnas of Brest-Litovsk Jewry. Saul was born in Padua, where his father was a rabbi, and in his youth went to Brest-Litovsk to study, and remained there, becoming a wealthy merchant.

In 1578, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Bathory (r. 1576 - 1586) leased him the salt pans in the grand duchy of Lithuania with the sole right to sell their products and in 1580 also the salt mine at Wieliczka near Cracow. He also farmed the king’s revenues in the Brest-Litovsk region, and in 1589 King Sigismund III Vasa (r. 1587 – 1632) granted him the status of servus regis or “royal servant”, which meant, among other things, that he could not be summoned before an ordinary court of law, only the royal tribunal, and had to report his actions exclusively to the king.

From the 1580s Saul was among the parnasim of the Brest community and a leader of Lithuanian Jewry, taking an important part in the Council of the Lands from the beginning of its existence in 1581. In 1593, through the mediation of Wahl, the Brest- Litovsk community was granted the right to adjudicate lawsuits between Jews. There are a number of legends concerning Saul Wahl, and one of them is that he was King of Poland for a day before the final ratification of the election of Sigismund III.