Be'er Sheva [novellae to Talmudic Tractates Horayoth, Tamid, Kereithoth, Sotah, Sanhedrin and Chullin, with responsa]

EILENBURG, ISSACHAR BAER

Giovanni Caleone

Venice

1614

FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural arch with male and female busts. Previous owners' signatures include Yochanan Giron of Firenze, dated 1691(see Otzar HaRabanim 7891). Scholarly marginalia in an early Italian hand slightly cut in some places by the binder THE RABBI NACHUM DOV-BER FRIEDMAN OF SADIGURA copy with his two alternating stamps

Vinograd, Venice 1076

The author, R. Issachar Baer Eilenburg (c.1570-1623), Rabbi of Gorizia, Italy, studied under R. Judah Löw in the latter’s yeshivah in Prague and later in the Posen yeshivah of Rabbi Mordecai Jaffe (author of Levushim). Along the way, Eilenburg imbibed Kabbalistic teachings from R. Israel Sarug, the likely disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Eilenburg served as rabbi of Austerlitz, Moravia before he was called to serve the rabbinate in Safed which his premature death prevented. See JE, Vol. V, pp. 77-78. Eilenburg’s most celebrated work is the present Be’er Sheva, to this day a favored commentary to several tractates of the Talmud. Haskamoth (approbations) include Leib Saraval of Venice, Moses Galante of Safed, Judah Löw (Mahara”l) of Prague, Mordechai Jaffe of Posen and Aaron ben Chaim (author Korban Aharon). A handwritten comment at the end of the introduction of this particular volume states that the author was accepted to the rabbinate in Safed in order to pursue the study of Kabbalah and cleve to R. Chaim of Damesek (R. Chaim Vital)