Yeshuot Malko

Yeshuot Malko - R' Yisrael Yehoshua Trunk of Kutno (1821-1893), Poland; Polish posek named after the Baal Shem Tov, Vilna Gaon, and Pnei Yehoshua. Known for his love of Eretz Yisrael, he praised the book Derishat Tzion by R' Zvi Hirsch Kalischer upon its publication, and in 1886 visited Eretz Yisrael with the goal of encouraging the Old Yishuv to begin agricultural settlement. In the shmita controversy of 1889, he was one of the first rabbis to formally approve the heter mechira.