(MaHaRa’L of Prague). Gur Aryeh [super-commentary to Rashi on the Pentateuch]

LOEWE, JUDAH BEN BEZALEL.

Mordechai ben Gershom Katz

Prague

1578

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut border

Vinograd, Prague 39; Mehlman 654; not in Adams

The MaHaRa’L of Prague. The celebrated MaHaRa”L of Prague was one of the foremost original thinkers and interpreters of the major problems and subjects of Jewish thought. His works have gained a resurgence of popularity in the modern era, under the influence of Rabbis A. Y. Kook, E. E. Dessler and Y. Hutner. For a most comprehensive study of the MaHaRa”L see, A. Gottesdiener, Ha’avi Shebechachamei Prague in: Azkarah, Rabbi A. Y. Kook Festschrift, (1937) Part IV pp.253-443. The Gur Aryeh is one of the most extensive works on Rashi and the Mizrachi. Many of the MaHaRa’L’s lengthier expositions in his other works are contained in a more capsulated version in the Gur Aryeh. In his encyclopaedic work, Beith Ha’otzar (1938) Rabbi Joseph Engel of Cracow, one of the greatest scholars of the 20th century, constantly makes reference to the Gur Aryeh.