JAFFE, MORDECHAI

Kalonymus ben Mordechai Jaffe

Lublin

1594-5

Levush Ohr Yekaroth. * Levush Adar Ha’yakar [commentary on the Laws of Sanctification of the New Month]. * Biurei Yaffeh [commentary on “Tzurath Eretz” by Abraham B”R Hiya]. * Levush Pinath Yekarith [additional commentary on Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed]

Vinograd, Lublin 53 (recording only the first part); Mehlman 829; Adams J-57&58 (recording only first three parts)

The ten Levushim”(“garments”) run the gamut from classical halacha, biblical exegesis, philosophy, astronomy and kabbalah. The author studied under the great talmudic scholars of Poland, R. Moses Isserles (Ram"a), and R. Shlomo Luria (Maharsh"al). He also pursued the study of Kabbalah under the guidance of R. Mattathias ben Solomon Delacrut whom he cites in the introduction to the Levush Ohr Yekaroth. “R. Jaffe’s commentaries are perhaps the finest and most balanced expression of a general cultural pattern of Polish Jewry in the 16th century...In the work of Jaffe, the rabbinic culture of Poland-Lithuania achieves a certain breadth and integrity that even at this distance cannot fail to impress." See L. Kaplan, Rabbi Mordekhai Jaffe and the Evolution of Jewish Culture in Poland in the Sixteenth Century in: B. Cooperman (Ed.) Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century (1983) pp. 266-282