ר׳ מאיר מרגליות

ר׳ מאיר מרגליות (c.1707–1790), known as the מהר״ם מרגליות and בעל מאיר נתיבים, was a major Galician–Podolian halakhist and one of the early rabbinic adherents of ר׳ ישראל בעל שם טוב. Born into the distinguished Margolies family, he studied within the learned networks of Volhynia and Galicia and encountered the Besht before Hasidism became a mass movement. He held rabbinic and judicial positions in several communities, including Horodenka and Lviv, and eventually became rabbi of Ostroh. A royal appointment of 1775 designated him rabbi of Bratslav and a wider Ukrainian district within the Polish Commonwealth, reflecting his recognized legal authority. His responsa מאיר נתיבים address ritual, civil and communal law and preserve correspondence with leading contemporaries; the first edition was printed posthumously at Polonne in 1791–92. Other works include אור עולם, דרך הטוב והישר and the kabbalistic סוד יכין ובועז. His relation to early Hasidism did not displace his conventional role as dayan and regional authority; rather, later traditions remember him as connecting elite rabbinic jurisprudence with the Besht's circle. He died in Ostroh on 10 Iyar 5550 and was buried near ר׳ שמואל אליעזר הלוי איידלס. The prior project claim that he emigrated to New York and served Shearith Israel was wholly false and has been removed.