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24-434: In his Or Zarua , the only primary source of information on his life, he mentions two Bohemian scholars as his teachers, Jacob ha-Laban and Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan . Led by a thirst for Talmudic knowledge, he undertook in his youth extensive journeys to the prominent yeshivot of Germany and France . According to Heinrich Gross , he went to Regensberg first; but S.N. Bernstein conjectures that previously he stopped for

48-425: A controversy with several rabbis concerning the legal status of a betrothed girl who had been forced by circumstances to adopt Christianity and had afterward returned to Judaism . His anxiety about correct observance led him to counsel the more difficult rather than the easier ritual practise. His mystical studies account for his belief in miracles. He was held in high regard by his pupils, and, like other teachers of

72-516: A long but unsteady and troubled life. He saw the law compelling Jews to wear the yellow badge put into force in France and he deplored the 1241 pogrom in Frankfurt and the extortions practised upon them by the nobles of Austria. His son-in-law was Samuel ben Shabbethai of Leipzig ; his son, Chaim Eliezer, called Or Zarua , like him a scholar, carried on a comprehensive halachic correspondence,

96-512: A long time at Vienna , and became closely identified with the city, as he is usually quoted as "Isaac of Vienna." From among the many scholars at Regensburg he selected for his guide the mystic Judah ben Samuel. About 1217 he went to Paris , where the great Talmudist Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon became his chief teacher. He also visited for a short time the yeshiva of Jacob ben Meir in Provins . Then he returned to Germany, and studied under

120-652: A manuscript of which exists in the Munich Library (No. 317). He is also mentioned in a commentary to the Pentateuch written in the first half of the 13th century. There is a piyyuṭ signed "Isaac b. Jacob," whom Zunz supposes to be Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan. Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva ( Hebrew : אלפא-ביתא דרבי עקיבא , Alpha-Beta de-Rabbi Akiva ), otherwise known as Letters of Rabbi Akiva ( Hebrew : אותיות דרבי עקיבא , Otiot de-Rabbi Akiva ) or simply Alphabet or Letters ,

144-695: A part of which (251 responsa ) was printed under the title Sefer She'elot uTeshubot (Leipzig, 1860). Toward the end of his life, about 1260, Isaac composed his halachic (legal) work Or Zarua. He is usually quoted as "Isaac Or Zarua." It was printed from the Amsterdam incomplete manuscript by Lipa and Höschel in Zhytomyr , 1862. Other manuscripts are at Oxford and in the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City . In

168-468: A treatise couched in words to whose meanings mystical significance is attached. It is an imitation of the Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph and was composed at the order of Isaac's teacher Eleazar ben Judah of Worms . Isaac's son Chaim Eliezer arranged a compendium of this work which exists in several manuscripts. The Or Zarua succeeded in displacing all the older ritual works. It is very important also for

192-541: Is a midrash on the names of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet . Two versions or portions of this midrash are known to exist. Version A, which is considered by Adolf Jellinek to be the older form, and by Bloch  [ de ] to be of a much more recent origin, introduces the various anthropomorphized letters of the Hebrew alphabet that God engraved from His crown with a pen of fire contending with each other for

216-501: Is simply a compilation of aggadic passages taken at random from these and other kabbalistic and midrashic works without any other connection than the external order of the letters of the alphabet, but also based on Shabbat 104a. Jellinek has shown the time of its composition to be comparatively modern, as is evidenced by the Arabic form of the letters and other indications of Arabic life. It has, however, become especially valuable as

240-473: Is the chief of all letters, denoting the oneness of God, and that it shall have its place at the beginning of the Sinaitic revelation . This competition is followed by an aggadic explanation of the form of the various letters and by interpretations of the different compositions of the alphabet: ATav BSh , AHetSam BTetAyin, and AL BM. Version B is a compilation of allegoric and mystic Aggadahs suggested by

264-789: The cultural history of the German Jews in the Middle Ages. According to Gross, Isaac's chief importance rests upon the fact that he introduced among the Jewish communities in Slavic lands the study of the Talmud from France and the west of Germany. Isaac was of a mild and peace-loving character and it was for this reason, perhaps, that he did not participate in the struggle against the study of secular sciences, though an incorrect ritual decision would rouse him to indignant energy. He carried on

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288-586: The 3rd century) were taught in such mnemonic forms which at the same time suggested moral lessons. Jellinek even thinks that the Midrash was composed with the view of acquainting the children with the alphabet, while the Shavuot festival furnished as themes God, Torah , Israel , and Moses . On the other hand, version B (which H. Grätz considered as being the original, and the works "Enoch" and " Shiur Komah " as sections of it) shows no inner unity of plan, but

312-716: The Karaite, in the 13th century. As to Rabbi Akiva 's authorship, this is claimed by the writers of both versions, who begin their compositions with the words, "R. Akiva has said." The justification for this pseudonymous title was found in the fact that, according to the Talmud , Moses was told on Sinai that the ornamental crown of each letter of the Torah would be made the object of halakhic interpretation by Rabbi Akiva , and that according to Genesis Rabbah 1, he and Rabbi Eliezer as youths already knew how to derive higher meaning from

336-536: The author carried on with Talmudic scholars of Italy , France, and Austria . Older collections of halachic decisions which the author had gathered together during his lifetime seem also to be embodied in the work. Isaac explains unknown words in Bohemian (i. e. Czech ), his mother tongue, and cites the Jerusalem Talmud , to which he ascribes great authority in halachic decisions. The work is introduced by

360-582: The depository of these very kabbalistic works, which nearly fell into oblivion due to the grossly anthropomorphic views of the Godhead expressed therein, which offended to the more enlightened minds of a later age. For this reason, the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva was severely attacked and ridiculed by Solomon ben Jeroham , the Karaite , in the early 10th century. Version A was likewise known to Judah Hadassi ,

384-545: The double form of the letters. In fact, there exists a third version, called Midrash de-Rabbi Akiva al ha-Taggin ve-Tziyunim , a Midrash of Rabbi Akiva treating on the ornamentations of the letters of the alphabet with a view to finding in each of them some symbolic expression of God, Creation, the Torah, Israel, and the Jewish rites and ceremonies. This version is published in Jellinek's Bet ha-Midrasch v. 31–33. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

408-462: The edition of Lipa and Höschel Seder Nezikin is wanting; most of the rest of the work was afterward printed at Jerusalem by J.M. Hirschensohn. The Or Zarua comprises the whole halachic corpus and is arranged according to the Talmudic tractates , while at the same time the halachot are kept together. The author, unlike Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah , does not confine himself to giving

432-529: The halakhic decisions, but gives also the passage of the Talmud, explains the subject matter, and develops the din from it. Thus, the Or Zarua is at the same time a ritual code and a Talmudic commentary. As it contains, in addition, explanations of some passages in the Hebrew Bible , the author is also quoted as a Bible commentator. Moreover, the book contains a part of the halachic correspondence which

456-520: The honor of forming the beginning of creation (bereshit). It is based upon Genesis Rabbah 1 and Shir haShirim Rabbah on 5:11, according to which Aleph (א) complained before God that Bet (ב) was preferred to it, but was assured that the Torah of Sinai, the object of creation, would begin with Aleph (אנכי = Anochi = I am); it, however, varies from the Midrash Rabbot . The letters, beginning with

480-513: The last, Tav, and ending with Bet, all assert their claim to be the first letter in the Torah: So all the remaining letters complain - each having some claim, each immediately refuted - until Bet (ב), the initial letter of berakhah (ברכה = "blessing" and "praise"), is chosen. Whereupon Aleph (א) is asked by the Most High why it alone showed modesty in not complaining, and it is assured that it

504-526: The mystic Eleazar ben Judah at Worms , and, at Speyer , under Simha of Speyer , his intimate friend, and Eliezer ben Joel HaLevi , author of Abi ha-'Ezri and Abi'asaf . At Würzburg , where Meir of Rothenburg was his pupil (c. 1230), he became the rosh yeshiva . Later on, Isaac returned to Regensberg, and then settled for some time in Vienna, where he held the position of Av Beit Din and rosh yeshiva. Finally, he went to Saxony and Bohemia. Isaac lived

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528-421: The names of the various letters, the component consonants being used as acrostics ( notarikon ). Both versions are given as a unit in the Amsterdam edition of 1708, as they probably originally belonged together. Version A shows more unity of plan, and is older. It is directly based upon, if not coeval with, Shabbat 104a, according to which the schoolchildren in the time of Joshua ben Levi (the beginning of

552-522: The time, was given the title HaKadosh "the Holy" by the Asher ben Jehiel . His contemporary Isaiah di Trani described him as "the wonder of the age". Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob or Yitzhak ben Yaakov , nicknamed "ha-Lavan" or "the white" was a 12th-century rabbi of Bohemia . He was a Tosafist and liturgical poet who flourished at Prague in the late 12th century. He

576-524: Was the brother of the renowned traveler Petachiah of Regensburg . He was among the earliest of the tosafists ("ba'ale tosafot yeshanim"), a contemporary of Rabbi Eleazar of Metz , and a pupil of Rabbenu Tam . According to Recanati, Isaac directed the yeshivah of Ratisbon. He also lived at Worms for a time. Isaac is mentioned frequently in the Tosafot , and Isaac ben Moses , in his Or Zarua , No. 739, quotes Isaac ben Jacob's commentary on Ketubot ,

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