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Expositions on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch. R. Israel B. Isserlein b. Pethahiah (1390–1460), the foremost rabbi of Germany in the 15th century. R. Isserlein was also called, after the towns in which he resided, Israel Marburg and Israel Neustadt, but he was mainly known as "the author of Terumat ha-Deshen," his chief work. Isserlein, the great grandson of Israel of Krems (author of Haggahot Asheri), was born in Regensburg. His father died when Israel was a youth, so he was educated in Wiener-Neustadt in the home of his mother's brother Aaron Plumel (Blumlein). In 1421 his uncle and mother were killed during the Vienna persecutions. After staying for some time in Italy, Isserlein established his residence in Marburg, Styria. In 1445 he returned to Wiener-Neustadt where he was appointed rabbi and av bet din of the city and neighborhood. Here Isserlein spent the rest of his life, and through him Wiener-Neustadt became a center of study, attracting a large number of students, many of whom later served as rabbis in various communities. Outstanding scholars and communities addressed their problems to him and accepted his decisions. The most important posekim valued his books and highly praised his personality. R. Moses Mintz called him Nesi ha-Nesi'im ("chief of chiefs"; responsa, no. 12 Salonika, 1802 ed., 10b). R. Isserlein refused to accept a salary from his community. He opposed those rabbis who tried to dominate their congregants by threats of excommunication. Through his efforts and personal authority he prevented a controversy among the German communities of the Rhine district when R. Seligman of Bingen attempted to impose various takkanot on them enacted on his responsibility, and threatened excommunication of those who did not accept the takkanot.
Marco Antonio Giustiniani was a Christian printer of Hebrew books in Venice in the 16th century. His master printer Cornelius Adelkind printed a fine edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1546–51). Soon, this very active press faced a formidable competitor in the house of Bragadini which issued Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, with the notes of R. Meir Katzenellenbogen. Giustiniani then printed the full text of that code without R. Meir's notes. The mutual recriminations that the rivals engaged in at the Papal Court ultimately resulted in the confiscation and burning of all Hebrew books (1553). |
