R. Luria was regarded as one of the Torah leaders of his generation, particularly after the death of his spiritual mentor, R. Elijah b. Solomon (Gaon of Vilna). His literary works embrace almost all the books of the Oral Law. They are chiefly textual glosses, notes, source references, and expositions of the sayings of the talmudic scholars, reflecting extraordinary knowledge of Torah together with a feeling for scientific criticism and an understanding of the plain meaning reminiscent of the methods followed by the Gaon of Vilna. R. Luria’s responsa are accompanied by a eulogy for R. Joshua Judah Leib Diskin.