The Arukh, on which Limmud Arukh is based, is a comprehensive lexicography by R. Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (he-Arukh, 1035-c. 1110). The Arukh is not a mere dictionary, but more akin to an encyclopedia. Not only are words explained, but the comments of contemporary and earlier rabbis, many from the time of the geonim, are noted, often the only source for those quotations. Nathan=s detailed explanations include material of historical and bibliographical value, and descriptions of Jewish customs.

R. Solomon Bamberger (1835–1918), son of the renowned R. Seligman Baer, who was his first teacher in Talmud. R. Solomon Bamberger was born in Weisenbronn, Bavaria, passed his examination as rabbin in Wurzburg in 1860, and in the following year was appointed substitute rabbi in Hassfurt. From 1864 to 1872 R. Bamberger was Klaus rabbi in Sulzburg, from 1872 to 1880 of Legenau-Endingenthal, Switzerland, and afterwards of Niederlangenthal, and Sennheim (the latter two in Alsace). His talmudic researches dealt mainly with Nathan ben Jehiel's Arukh on various talmudic tractates, 1868–97, this volume being on Megillah; R. Bamberger also wrote Hegyon Shelomo, 1878) on Berakhot and Shabbat.