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Rare first edition of the responsa of R. Israel ben Hayyim Bruna. Immediately after R. Bruna’s responsa were printed in Salonika a fire destroyed almost all the press run, so that very few copies are extant today. The title page has a decorative frame and is dated “wisdom and understanding החכמה והדעת (563=5558 =1798)”. There are approbations and prefatory remarks and then the responsa, which number two hundred eighty three. The volume concludes with an index by subject matter and errata. The subject matter of the responsa is comprehensive, encompassing al parts of the Shulhan Arukh. R. Bruna was rabbi is several communities in Germany and his responsa provide valuable information on the German Jewish scene of his time.
R. Israel ben Hayyim Bruna (c. 1400–1480) studied under R. David of Schweidnitz, and later R. Jacob Weil, R. Israel Isserlein, and R. Zalman Cohen of Nuremberg. His first rabbinical post was in Bruenn, his native city. When R. Goddel of Orenburg arrived there sometime later, and began to exercise rabbinical functions, R. Bruna lodged a complaint before R. Isserlein who advised him to resign himself to Goddel's presence. By 1446 he was in Regensburg, where he opened a yeshivah and served as rabbi to his followers, thereby arousing the hostility of a well-known local rabbi, R. Anshel Segal, who also headed a yeshivah. Despite the decisions of R. Jacob Weil and R. Israel Isserlein (Isserlein, pesak 128), upholding Bruna's right to work and teach in Regensburg, his rival's supporters made him endure great indignity, which ceased only with R. Anshel's death, at which time Bruna became the acknowledged leader of the community and av bet-din. After the death of R. Weil and R. Isserlein, he was recognized as the halakhic authority of Germany, and his opinion in communal and rabbinical matters was widely sought. In 1456 R. Bruna was imprisoned for 13 days, apparently to spur the collection of a "coronation tax" imposed on the Jews of his city by the emperor Frederick III. In 1474 he was imprisoned again, this time the victim of a blood libel; an apostate, Hans Vayol, accused him of buying a Christian youth and killing him to make use of his blood. The church demanded his death, but the community secured the intervention of Frederick III and Ladislav II, king of Bohemia, which led to Vayol's confession and subsequent execution. R. Bruna was freed only after formally renouncing all claim to compensation for the injustice done to him. His son was dayyan in Prague.
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... ר' ישראל מברונא... חמדה גנוזה חתום באוצרותי ... יחיאל יעקב אליקים [שהוסיף הערות, חידושים ומפתחות]...
הסכמות רבני סאלוניקי: ר' יוסף ן' יעיש, ר' אברהם ב"ר בינבינישטי גאטינייו ור' חיים יוסף ב"ר עזריאל הכהן ן' ארדוט, שלהי [מר]חשון תקנ"ח. |
