Ben Shmuel

Samuel de Medina (1506-1589), known by the acronym MaHaRaSHDa”M, was one of the outstanding Halachic decisors of the 16th-century. The yeshivah he founded in Salonika (which was supported by the noble Donna Gracia Mendes-Nasi) gave rise to several famous scholars from throughout the Ottoman Empire. The present work, a book of thirty sermons, was published by his grandson Shemaiah. In his discourses, de Medina makes extensive use of the Spanish philosophical literature, such as Maimonides’ Guide and Crescas’ Or Ado-nai. See M.S. Goodblatt, Jewish Life in Turkey in the XVIth Century, as Reflected in the Legal Writings of Samuel de Medina (1952); L. Bornstein, Maphteach Le’ SHuT R. Shmuel de Medina (1979); EJ. Vol. XI, cols. 1212-14