Book excerpt: Rabbi Yehoshua Aisek Shapira lived in the 19th century and was the great-grandson of Rabbi Luria, the famed Kabbalist of Safed. Rabbi Aisel Slonimer, as he was known, spent most of his rabbinic life in Slonim, in the Grodno district of Byelorussia, He was called Harif (Sharp) because of his prodigious memory and his sharp tongue. His witticisms and clever retorts are legendary. Rabbi Aisel wrote many of his major works in Slonim, including Emek Yehoshua and Nahlat Yehoshua which encompass his responsa (questions and answers to problems of his day); Noam Yerushalmi, his commentary and glosses on the Jerusalem Talmud; and Sefat HaNahal and Ibbei HaNahal which contain many of his sermons.