Sefer Yesod: First Edition of She’elos U’Tshuvos Mahar"i Weil, with ‘Shechitos U’Bedikos’.
Responsa of Mahar"i Weil, containing several works of great importance for customs of Ashkenazi Jewry at the end of the Rishonim period, by the Gaon Rabbeinu Yaakov Weil (Mahar"i), one of the greatest Ashkenazi rabbis of all generations.
The work includes:
*She’elos U’Tshuvos (responsa) and laws. There are 193 simanim.
*The laws of shechitah and bedikos. This is an enormous treatise on the laws of shechitah according to Ashkenazi customs, and every shochet and bodek in every town studied this sefer or its laws that are brought down in hundreds of sefarim.
*Dinim and Halachos, in brief. There are 71 sections.
This is the first edition of the She’elos U’Tshuvos (responsa) Mahar"i Weil, and the second edition of ‘Shechitos U’Bedikos’.
Only a single copy of the first edition (Prague, c. 1529) of Shechitos U’Bedikos is known in the world, so in fact
this edition is the earliest available edition of this fundamental sefer.
Rabbeinu Mahar"i Weil (d. before approx. 1455) was one of the leading Rabbanim in Ashkenazi lands in the fifteenth century, together with Mahar"i Rabbi Yisrael Isserlein. He was one of the greatest disciples of the Maharil, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin. His sefer of ‘She’elos U’Tshuvos’ and his sefer ‘Shechitos U’Bedikos’ are amongst the most important Ashkenazi sifrei psak of his time, and were the basis for many halachic rulings of the Rema, Maharshal and other Ashkenazi poskim, and even of the Beis Yosef.
"The shochtim and bodkim do not know the Tur and She’elos U’Tshuvos, except from the Shechitos U’Bedikos of Mahar"i Weil which is their main study." (Beis Hillel, Yoreh Deah Siman 25 161).
The Maharshal also wrote: "And he was the leader amongst the Acharonim and from his waters, all those who followed him drank." (Yam Shel Shlomo, Gittin 82, Siman 24)
Venice, 1549.
Page Count: 115 leaves.
Size: 20.3 cm.
Condition: Good; minor restorations on the title page and on a few additional pages; sealed punctures; light stains. Fine new leather binding.
Bibliography: Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod # 272.
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At the end of the sefer, two more works from Ashkenazi rabbis were printed:
A. ‘Chidushi Agudah’ on the Shas by Rabbi Alexander Zuslin, author of ‘Ha’Aguda’;
B. ‘Nimukei Mahara"r Menachem MiRizboruk’. These were in the hands of Mahar"i Weil, as is recalled in Answer 133.
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On page 108 there is an early signature with testimony to the time of death of the Rosh Yeshiva of Mantua, Rabbi Shlomo Katz Raffa, in the year 1576. (See: She’elos U’Tshuvos Matnos Ba’Adam, p. 264, note 17).
