Jehiel Brill, (1836–1886), pioneer of the Hebrew press in Palestine. Brill left his native Russia in the late 1850s, and after much wandering went to Erez Israel. He married the daughter of Jacob Saphir, and settled in Jerusalem from where he sent reports to Hebrew newspapers in the Diaspora. Together with Joel Moses Salomon and Michael Cohen he established Jerusalem's second Hebrew printing press, and began publishing the monthly Ha-Levanon (1863), the first Hebrew periodical to appear in Palestine. A year later the publication was suspended and Brill went to Paris. There he revived his paper in 1865, first as a biweekly and later as a weekly. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) he moved to Mainz, where he established a Hebrew printing press and published Ha-Levanon (1872–82) as a Hebrew supplement to Der Israelit, the Orthodox German weekly. Ha-Levanon supported the halukkah and the Jerusalem rabbis. A staunch defender of religious tradition, Brill also pleaded the cause of settlement in Erez Israel along the lines attempted by members of the old yishuv, outside the Jerusalem walls, and in Petah Tikvah. After the Russian pogroms of 1881 and the rise of Hibbat Zion, Brill returned to Erez Israel at the head of a small group of Jewish farmers from Belorussia who settled in Mazkeret Batyah (Ekron). However, he became embroiled in an argument concerning the policy of the agricultural school, Mikveh Israel, and with other settlers and left the country disillusioned. Brill related these experiences in Yesud ha-Ma'alah (1883). In 1884 he settled in London and began publishing the short-lived Yiddish weekly, Ha-Shulamit. Shortly before his death he revived Ha-Levanon in London, but only 11 issues appeared. During his stay in Paris and Mainz, he published several medieval Hebrew manuscripts: Yein Levanon (1866, three manuscripts, including one of Maimonides, on tractate Rosh ha-Shanah); R. Hananel's commentary on tractate Pesahim (1868); Sefer Iggerot by R. Meir ha-Levi Abulafia (1871), and Be'er ha-Golah (1877).

מדברי המביא לבית הדפוס: "לשלימות מלאכתי, לקחתי לפני כ"י אחר הנמצא פה בבית עקד הספרים של... הירץ גינזבורג נ"י, ושמתי עין על שניהם ...". בעלותו של הרמב"ם על החיבור מסופקת. ש' ליברמן, הלכות הירושלמי לרמב"ם, נויארק תש"ח, מבוא, עמ' יב, מקיים בעלותו של הרמב"ם על הפירוש. לדעת מ"מ כשר, תורה שלמה, יג, תש"י, עמ' 193-191, יש כאן לקט מפירושי הראשונים והרמב"ם בתוכם. ועיין עוד: י' תא-שמע, פירוש הרמב"ם לתלמוד - חידה ודרך פתרונה, שנתון המשפט העברי, יד-טו, תשמ"ח-תשמ"ט, עמ' 305-299 (ושם עמ' 302 ואילך על חיבור זה). נדפס תחילה בהמשכים בכתב-העת "הלבנון", שנה ב, תרכ"ה (נדפס כאן מתוך סדר-האותיות של ההדפסה הראשונה). החיבור - באותה מתכונת - צורף גם לקובץ "יין לבנון" שהוציא לאור י' בריל, פאריש תרכ"ו.