Sepher Benyamin Ze’ev [responsa]

Of importance due to the insight offered concerning the social conditions and religious life of the Jews in Asia Minor. See M. Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (1977) pp. 155-56; M. Benayahu, Prolegomenon to the Responsa Benjamin Ze’ev (1989). Of a somewhat disputatious nature, R. Benjamin issued this mammoth collection of 450 legal decisions largely as self-justification following a tendentious Halachic feud with David HaKohen of Corfu concerning Agunoth. Despite the distinctly independent tone in its rulings, the work was often cited by R. Moses Isserles (the ReM”A), thus assuring its place of permanence in the annals of Halacha.