JAFFE, MORDECHAI

Kalonymus ben Mordechai Jaffe

Lublin

1594-5

Levush Ohr Yekaroth [commentary to the Pentateuch]. * Levush Pinath Yikrath [commentary on Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed] * Levush Adar HaYakar [commentary on the Laws of Sanctification of the New Month]. * Biurei Yaffeh [commentary on the astronomical “Tzurath Eretz” by Abraham b”r Hiya]

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

The author was one of the greatest scholars of his time. He was especially renowned for his wide-ranging interests. His ten Levushim run the gamut from classical halacha, biblical exegisis, philosophy, astronomy and kabbalah. He studied under the great talmudic scholars of Poland, R. Moses Isserles (Ram"a), and R. Shlomo Luria (Maharsh"al). He studied Kabbalah under R. Mattathias ben Solomon Delacrut whom he cites in the introduction to the Levush Ohr Yekaroth. These works comprise the last three “garments” (Levushim) of the total of ten which comprise Jaffe’s monumental output. “R. Jaffe’s commentaries on the classics of philosophy, astronomy and Kabbalah included alongside his halakhic code...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