She’erith Yoseph [responsa]

HAKOHEN, JOSEPH BEN MORDECHAI GERSHON.

Isaac Prostitz

Cracow

1590

FIRST EDITION . Title within architectural arch. THIS COPY WITH RARE additional responsa on Chalitzah.

Vinograd, Cracow 134; Mehlman 724; Y. Rivkind, Dikdukei Seforim in: Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (Hebrew issue), (1950) pp. 422-3, no. 27.

Mehlman notes that a handful of copies have two additional unnumbered leaves containing four unnoted responsa. Printed after the work was completed, these four responsa were not reprinted in later editions. The present copy contains one unnumbered leaf with three additional responsa on Chalitzah, followed by a blank leaf. Joseph ben Mordechai Gershon was the brother-in-law of R. Moses Isserles (ReM”A) and served as a member of his Beth Din. She’erith Yoseph contains his responsa as well as expositions on the Mordechai to the Orders Nezikin and Mo’ed, Tractate Berachoth, the minor Tractates as well as the Tur, Choshen Mishpat. Most of his responsa deal with financial and commercial matters, an area in which he was expert. He was approached with problems from Moravia, Italy and even Turkey as well as his native Poland. He corresponded with R. Meir Katzenellenbogen (see responsum no. 1), and R. Solomon Luria (see responsum no. 17).