MISHNAYOT WITH THE TOSEFET YOM TOV COMMENTARY OF RABBI YOM TOV LIPMANN HELLER, PRAGUE: MOSES BEN JOSEPH BEZALEL KATZ, 1614-1617

The rare first edition of the first published commentary of an Ashkenazic scholar on the entire Mishnah.

Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1578-1654), born in Wallerstein, Upper Swabia, studied with luminaries such as Rabbis Jacob Ulma Günzburg (d. 1616) in Friedberg and Judah Loew ben Bezalel (Maharal; ca. 1525-1609) and Solomon Ephraim of Luntshits (1550-1619) in Prague. For over half a century, he served as rabbi and/or rabbinic judge in the Jewish communities of Prague, Nikolsburg, Vienna, Niemirów, Włodzimierz, and Krakow. Among Heller’s many scholarly writings, the best-known is his Tosefet yom tov (later styled Tosefot yom tov). In this pioneering work, written while he participated in a Mishnah study group founded by Maharal in Prague, Heller undertook to provide Tosafist-like commentary to the entire Mishnah and to one of its greatest expositors, Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro (ca. 1450-ca. 1516). Tosefet yom tov aims to arrive at the peshat (plain sense meaning) of the Mishnah by establishing the correct text thereof, explaining difficult words therein (sometimes via Greek etymologies), and resolving various internal contradictions. In the process, it also helpfully summarizes earlier commentaries and clarifies points of practical law. According to Heller biographer Joseph Davis, the work is “[o]ne of the literary monuments of Renaissance culture among the Jews of Prague.” It quickly achieved wide popularity, even going through a second edition during its author’s lifetime (Krakow, 1642-1645), and has remained a staple of traditional study to this day. The present lot is a rare set of all six orders of the Mishnah, printed together with the Bertinoro and Heller commentaries. It lacks only the seven unfoliated errata leaves appended to the end of some copies of volume 3.