Commentary on Pirkei Avot from R. Jehiel Michael ben Jedidiah, known as Michael Morawczyk (d. 1593). His surname, Morawczyk  (מארפטשיק - Morawtschik, Morawczik), is probably indicative of the family's origin in Moravia. He is best known for Minhah Hadashah on Pirkei Avot.

The title page has the Prostitz frame made up of vine-covered pillars, with the verse "Hear, you children, the instruction of a father" (Proverbs 4: 1) at the top. The text states, "Pukei Avot with commentaries gathered from the tens of the shields of 'the holy and excel­lent ones who are in the earth' (paraphrase of Psalms 16:3), Ravan (Eliezer ben Nathan), Rashi, Rambam, Rabbenu Obadiah Bcrtinoro, Don Isaac Abrabanel, Pirkei Moshe, Bet Lehem Yehudah, Lev Avot, and also the commentary of two orders of old parchment .... " Below is "Minhah Hadashah." The name of the printer is lacking, but is attributed to the Prostitz press due to the like fonts and paper stocks.

The volume is made up of R. Morawczyk's introduction (lb-3b), an introduction to Avot (4a-5a), the text (5b-81b), and likkutim (82a-84b). Initial words of chapters 1, 4, 5 and 6 are in a decorative frame. R. Morawczyk begins his introduction, "One who wishes to be pious should [fulfill the words of [Nezikin. Rava says] the words of Avot" (Bava Kamma 30a). Therefore he has brought a minhah hadashah for the public benefit, with the :(phar, Talmud, Midrash Rabbah ve-:(pta, and Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, to instruct the manner in which one should go, all in a clear language. The paragraph concludes with R. Morawczyk's name and, "Thursday, parashat (Vqyeitzei) 'And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go'" (Genesis 28:15). In the second paragraph Morawczyk asks several questions, among them, "why the [holy city] of Safed is inhabited and is adorned with the crown of Torah and a good name more than the cities of Erez Israel." In the likku­tim he writes that he found in the :(phar that Safed's greatness can be attributed to the fact that it was the first city destroyed after the death of Joshua and it was called Hormah (ref. Judges 1: 17) and they did not leave any of its inhabitants alive and removed all the defilement from it, which is not found for any other city after the death of Joshua, from which he finds an allusion to the rebuilding of Zion.

In the epilogue (81 b) we are informed that R. Morawczyk concluded the commentary erev Shaou'ot in Cracow in 336 (5 Sivan = Thursday, May 13, 1576) and therefore entitled the work Minhah Hadashah for the two wave loaves (ref. Leviticus 23: 1 7) brought at that time, Torah she-bi-Khetao and Torah she-be-al Peh, that is, the written Torah and the Oral Torah.

Minhah Hadashah, the first Polish edition of Pirkei Avot, was reputedly also printed in Lublin (1576) and reprinted in Cracow (1590), but both of these editions are question­able. Minhah Hadashah was in fact reprinted in Frankfort a. M. (1722) by Johann Koelner. R. Morawczyk's other works are Birkat ha-Maeon, Zemirot, and Perushim (Cracow, 1580, 1597); a halakhic monograph, Seder Berakhot (Cracow, 1582); a commentary on the Minhagim of R. Isaac Tyrnau (Cracow, 1660); and the Cezerat Oestreich (Cracow, 1582), a Hebrew trans­lation of the German Wiener Geserah.

Hebrew Description

עם פירוש מלוקט מעשרה שליטי'... רא"בן, רש"י, ורמב"ם, ורבינו עובדיה ברטינור"ה, ודון יצחק אברבני"ל [נחלת אבות, קושטא רס"ו] ופרקי משה [לר' משה אלמושנינו, סאלוניקי שכ"ג] ובית לחם יהודה [לר' יהודה לירמה, ויניציאה שי"ג] ולב אבות [לר' שלמה לבית הלוי, שאלוניקי שכ"ה]. וגם מפירוש שני סידורים קלף ישנים ... מנחה חדשה, ([מאת] יחיאל בר ידידיה ז"ל ה"ה המכונה מיכל מארפטשיק).

דף פב-פד: ליקוטים.

ידוע בשם "מנחה חדשה". העורך השתמש בין השאר ב"פירוש ישן נושן על קלף, כתב ידו של ראב"ן, שנכתב בשנת תתק"ה לפ"ק", וקטעים ממנו שולבו בספר. על פירוש זה עיין: ש"י שפיצר, מבוא לפירוש הראב"ן אבות, בתוך: מסכת אבות עם פירוש רש"י, בני ברק תשנ"ב, עמ' ז.