Physical
Description |
|
[66] pp., 384:238 mm., damp staining, ink on paper, neat Ashkenazic scipt, bound in contemporary boards, split, not signed. Apparently never printed. |
Detailed
Description |
|
Novellae to the Tosefot Yom Tov commentary on Mishnah. Written in clear and lucid Hebrew, the writer was definitely an erudite talmudic scholar, his name remains unknown. These novellae were never published. The writer states on the final page that this is the third time he has completed the study of the six orders of the Mishnah giving the location and date.
The Tosefot Yom Tov commentary was written by R. Yom Tov Lippmann ha-Levi Heller (1579–1654), its purpose was to serve as an addition (tosefet) and exposition, supplement and work of source reference to the Mishnah commentary of R. Obadiah of Bertinoro. R. Heller traced the sources of the R. Bertinoro commentary, explained obscurities, examined and also criticized its conclusions in the sphere of halakhah, and made linguistic comments. He explained the words grammatically, noted the halakhah on the basis of the Talmud and the rishonim and aharonim and took care to establish accurate readings, most of which he added to the second edition of his commentary, through clarification and elucidation of the text on the basis of various manuscripts and earlier published works. R. Heller endeavored to reconcile the contradictions between one Mishnah and another by means of straightforward and logical rationalization. All his comments are formulated with the utmost simplicity - and here he follows in the footsteps of his teacher R. Judah Loew b. Bezalel, who opposed the method of pilpul. Despite his positive attitude to Kabbalah, he refrained from relying upon it in deciding the halakhah, since "in explaining the Talmud, we have no dealings at all with esoteric matters" (Ma'adanei Yom Tov; Ber. 1). In his opinion the Mishnah might be interpreted differently from the explanation given in the Talmud, "providing no decisions which contradict the view of the authors of the Gemara are given" (Tosefot Yom Tov to Naz. 5:5). In his introduction he formulated his attitude to the commentary of Bertinoro: "My task, however, is to examine carefully in the Mishnah in order to see whether anything requires explanation that has not been explained in the commentary of the Rav [Bertinoro], or whether there is a contradiction from some other Mishnah to which he has not drawn attention, and also whether there is anything in his commentary for which an explanation and reason has to be given, as well as if there be any contradiction in the commentary itself, and more so from the Mishnah."
|
