R. Dr. Adolph Jellinek here provides an introduction to R. Jedidiah Solomon Raphael ben Abraham Norzi 's(ca.1560-ca.1626) work entitled Minhat Shai. R. Norzi was a Rabbi and exegete; born at Mantua. He studied under R. Moses Cases, and received his rabbinical diploma in 1585. Toward the beginning of the seventeenth century he was elected co-rabbi of Mantua, a position which he held until his death. R. Jedidiah Solomon consecrated the greater part of his life to a critical and Masoretic commentary on the Bible, which was considered a standard work. The author spared no pains to render his critical labors as complete as possible, and to leave the Biblical text in as perfect a condition as thorough learning and conscientious industry could make it. He noted all the various readings which are scattered through Talmudic and midrashic literatures, and consulted all the Masoretic works, both published and unpublished.

R. Dr. Adolf Jellinek was an Austrian rabbi and scholar; born June 26, 1821, at Drslawitz, Moravia; died Dec. 29, 1893, at Vienna. In 1845 he became preacher at the Leipsic-Berliner Synagogue in Leipsic, and in 1848 preacher at the Leipsic community synagogue; in 1856 he was called as preacher to the Leopoldstädter Tempel, Vienna, where he remained until the death of Mannheimer, whom he succeeded in 1865 in the Seitenstettengasse Tempel.

בשער המקורי כותב המחבר: וקראתי שם החבור גדר פרץ. השם מנחת שי ניתן לספר על ידי המהדיר הראשון, ר' רפאל חיים באזילה.