MEIR BEN BARUCH OF ROTHENBURG

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Shailoth Uteshuvoth MeHaRa”M Mi’Rothenburg [responsa]. FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. Including the Ammendments of Rabbeinu Gershom. Title within historiated woodcut border incorporating printer’s device (Yaari, Printer’s Marks no. 37). ff. 2, 5-114. Leaves 3 and 4 were destroyed during printing and are missing in all copies, f. 2 misbound. [Vinograd, Prague 161; Mehlman 753] . Prague, Moses ben Bezalel Katz, 1608. * Bound with: ASHER BEN YECHIEL (RO”SH). Shailoth Uteshuvoth [responsa]. Title within architectural border. ff. 180, 2, (17). [Vinograd, Venice 1034]. Venice, Zanetti. 1607-8. * And: KARO, JOSEPH. Shulchan Aruch [code of Jewish Law]. Choshen Mishpat (only). With commentary by Moses Isserles (ReM”A). Title within architectural arch, printer’s device on verso. ff. 136. [Vinograd, Cracow 163]. Cracow, I. Prostitz, 1593

The first work is the first complete edition containing 1,020 responsa by this supreme arbiter of Halachic authority in Germany. For an exhaustive treatment of the Mahara"m and his influence from the 13th-century on, see I.A. Agus, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (1947). The second work contains the important contribution of R. Asher ben Yechiel (c.1250-1327) to Halachic systems. His decisions are one of three modalities upon which R. Joseph Karo relied when formulating his final synthesis of the Shulchan Aruch (the others being the legal rulings of R. Isaac Alfasi and Maimonides). A native of Germany, R. Asher settled in Toledo, Spain in 1305, where he became acquainted with the Sephardic tradition. However, in terms of Pesak Halacha, his work is reflective of the Aschkenazic rather than the Sephardic tradition. The collection of responsa of R. Asher ben Yechiel is divided into one hundred and eight groups called Kelallim, with responsa in each dealing with one subject. The responsa reflect the conditions of Jewish life in Central and Southern Spain. For a discussion of these conditions as apparant from R. Asher’s responsa, see M. Waxman, Vol. II pp.167-9. The publisher states on the title that this edition contains additional responsa not included in previous editions plus an appendix of two respona from R. Yaakov Surizina before the indices. The third work is the fourth Cracow edition of the Shulchan Aruch with the notes of R. Moses Isserles (ReM”A)