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Commentary on Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim by R. Nethanel ben Naphtali Zevi Weil (1687–1769). Its emphasis is on the Magen Avraham of R. Abraham Abele Gombiner, (c. 1637–1683) R. Weil provides the sources of that work and corrects occasional errors. Netiv Hayyim was published posthumously by R. Weil’s son, Simeon Hirsch. This edition was printed at the behest of the “four philanthropists, the remnants that call for HaShem, the most special of the community in Gibraltar.” The title page notes that it should be a segulah for the community of Gibraltar. Netiv Hayyim is one of the few books sponsored by the Jews of Gibraltar. Reference to remnants may refer to the period from 1779 to 1783 when Gibraltar was besieged and the Jews took refuge in London. Several of the final pages are misfoliated. The title page is dated, “The wage ôòìú (580 = 1820) of the righteous leads to life” (Proverbs 10:16).
R. Nethanel Weil, German rabbi, was born in at Stühlingen. At the age of ten his mother took him to Fuerth and afterward to Prague, where his paternal uncle, Lippman Weil, adopted him. He began to attend the lectures of R. Abraham ben Saul Broda (d. 1717) in Prague, who was sufficiently impressed to offer R. Weil his niece, Vögele, whom he married in 1708. When R. Broda accepted positions in Metz and Frankfurt R. Weil followed him to those locations. R. Weil served as rosh yeshivah in Prague. When the Jews were expelled from Bohemia in 1744, he was appointed rabbi of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) district, centered in Mühringen. In 1750 he became rabbi of Karlsruhe, remaining there for twenty years. R. Weil is best known for his Korban Netanel, a comprehensive commentary on R. Asher ben Jehiel’s (Rosh, c. 1250-1327) commentary on Mo’ed and Nashim. Korban Netanel, the first Hebrew book printed in Karlsruhe (1755), is now printed together with the Rosh in standard editions of the Talmud. He was also the author of Torat Netanel, responsa and sermons (Fuerth 1795). |
