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Bidding Information
Lot #    6568
Auction End Date    2/10/2004 11:46:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    She’elot u’Teshuvot
Title (Hebrew)    שאלות ותשובות
Author    R. Joseph Colon (Ma-ha-Rik)
City    Cremona
Publisher    Vincenzo Cunti
Publication Date    1557
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Second edition. [12], 173 [i.e. 172] ff., 288:201 mm., wide margins, stamp on title and final, censor's hand on final (uncensored), paper repairs to lower margin initial few ff. not affecting text. A very good copy bound in early 20th cent. half leather and cloth boards, rubbed.
          
Paragraph 1    The R. Hayyim Berlin copy. R. Berlin (1832–1912), Lithuanian rabbi, eldest son of R. Naphtali Zevi Judah Berlin, head of the yeshivah at Volozhin for some 40 years. R. Hayyim Berlin received his education from his father and became conversant with all aspects of rabbinic literature as well as being well versed in Jewish subjects. At the age of seventeen he married into the wealthy Zeitlin family of Shklov, and later used part of his wealth to amass an excellent library which was acquired by the Yeshivat Ez Hayyim of Jerusalem after his death. In 1865 Berlin became the rabbi of Moscow. In 1889 he returned to Volozhin at the request of his aged father, who wanted his son to succeed him as head of the yeshivah. However, he was opposed by many of the Volozhin yeshivah students, who favored the election of his niece's husband, R. Hayyim Soloveichik, who was renowned for his unique analytical approach to talmudic study. The controversy soon ended with the forced closing of the school by the Russian government on January 22, 1892. With the closing of the yeshivah, Berlin became the rabbi of Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd), where he remained until 1906, when he settled in Jerusalem. His erudition, family heritage, and patriarchal appearance gained for him a leading role on the Jerusalem scene, and in 1909 he was elected to succeed R. Samuel Salant as chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem.
          
Detailed
Description		    R. Joseph b. Solomon Colon (ma-ha-Rik; c. 1420–1480), was taught by his own father, an eminent talmudist. In his early youth he left France, where he was born, and led the life of a wanderer, gaining a livelihood by teaching children. In 1462 he headed a yeshivah in Seville. He held rabbinical positions in Pieve di Sacco, Mestre (before 1467), Bologna, and Mantua (apparently from 1467). In Mantua he and Judah b. Jehiel Messer Leon became involved in a dispute, as a result of which they were banished by the authorities. Ma-ha-Rik afterward became rabbi of Pavia, making it the center of talmudic learning in Italy. Scholars in Germany, Turkey, and Italy sought his decisions on Jewish law. After his death his responsa were collected and have since been frequently reprinted and published (Venice, 1519 etc.). His decisions had great influence on later Italian halakhah, and there is scarcely an Italian rabbi of the 16th and 17th century who does not quote him. In the responsa he endeavored not only to decide the case but also to lay down general principles according to which related cases could be decided. Possessed of a wide knowledge of rabbinic literature, great critical insight, independence of thought, and a strong sense of justice, he spoke out courageously against many decisions that were widely accepted at that time. He upheld the claims of an individual against an arbitrary majority. He was not cowed by authority, and firmly, though respectfully, reproved Israel Bruna, the foremost German talmudist of his time, for presuming to act as a judge in a dispute in which he was an interested party. When a false accusation was made against some Jews of Regensburg, and the neighboring communities refused to be taxed for their ransom (although agreeing to make voluntary payments), Ma-ha-Rik decided that since such false accusations could also be brought against them, it was in their interest and, consequently, their duty, to pay the tax (resp. no. 4). On one occasion, Ma-ha-Rik's zeal for justice and truth led him into a dispute with R. Moses b. Elijah Capsali of Turkey. Having been wrongly informed that the latter had been lax in decisions concerning divorce and betrothal, Ma-ha-Rik, to protect the sanctity of marriage against the ill-considered decisions of individual rabbis, wrote three letters to the leaders of the Constantinople community, threatening to place R. Capsali under a ban if he did not cancel his decisions and do public penance. This unprecedented attack on the rights of the community aroused a furore in Constantinople. R. Capsali answered the attack vehemently. Soon many of the leading rabbis of the day were embroiled in the dispute, which ended when Ma-ha-Rik learned that he had been the victim of intrigue. With this discovery, Ma-ha-Rik's remorse was as swift and thorough as had been his rebuke, and he did all within his power to make amends to the victim of his unjust attack, to the degree of sending his son Perez to travel to Constantinople and beg forgiveness of R. Capsali. Colon is the author of a commentary on the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol of R. Moses b. Jacob of Coucy, part of which was published in Munkacs (1899). His Seder ha-Get appeared in R. Judah Minz's She'elot u-Teshuvot (Venice, 1553).
          
Paragraph 2    ... נתאזרנו... להדפיסו שנית... עם מראה מקום. ועשינו לו ידים בתשובותיו. סדרנו לו לוח חדשה מסודר' על סדר הלכו' הרמב"ם ז"ל. והגהנוהו בתכלית הדיוק...

בשער: שי"ז. קולופון: והיתה השלמתו... יז חשון שנת ופרשת בתם לבבי ובנקיון כף עשיתי זאת [שי"ח]. דף 12-2: "ושנסתי את מתני אני... חייא מאיר בכהר"ר דוד ... ועשיתי מכל תשובה שורש אחד", מן ההוצאה הראשונה."ואנחנו המדפיסים... העתקנו השרשים והענפים על סדר הלכות הרמב"ם". דף [12,א] שיר ושבח... להמחבר. פותח: אחפש בנרות למלא שחוק פי לשוני רננה שפתי תהילה. עיין: אוצר השירה והפיוט, א, עמ' 120, מס' 2543. עם שירו של ר' חייא מאיר.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0162806; EJ; H. Rabinowicz, Life and Times of Rabbi Joseph Colon (University of London, 1947)
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
16th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Italy:    Checked
  
Subject
Responsa:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica