SEFER RAV MORDECHAI

THE FIRST SEPARATE EDITION OF THE MORDECHAI. Earlier editions had been appended to Alfasi (see M. Benayahu, Hebrew Printing at Cremona (1971), p. 114). This copy lacks the Simmanei Mordecai by Joseph Ottolenghi (ff.45) appended to many copies - allthough Y.Y. Cohen, in his census of books published in Riva di Trento lists them separately (respectively nos. 4 and 9). Giulanio Tamani, La Tipografia di Jacob Marcaria, Riva del Garda,1991 also lists them separately - nos. 7 and 11. R. Mordechai ben Hillel Hakohen (1240?-1298) was an outstanding disciple of R. Meir (MaHaRa”M) of Rothenburg. His gigantic compendium, arranged according to the tractates of the Talmud, is a rich repository of the halachic traditions of Aschkenaz. The Mordechai was one of the most popular halachic texts studied in the German and Polish yeshivoth in the sixteenth century. See A. Siev, ”Hagahot ha-Rama al Ha-Mordechai”, in Hagut Ivrit be-America, Vol. I (1972), pp. 426-439; A. Halperin, “Sefer ha-Mordechai bi-Re'i Hadpasotav” in: Iyunim be-Sifrut Chazal...Melamed Festschrift (1982), pp. 323-338; EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 311-4