Israel Lewy (7 January 1841 – 8 September 1917) was a

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Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish scholar.

Biography

He was educated at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in Breslau. In 1874 he was appointed

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at the

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, and in 1883, on the death of

David Joël David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, he was called to the seminary at Breslau. Lewy's knowledge of Talmudic literature was unusually wide; he was endowed also with an exceptionally acute and dispassionate critical spirit and with a faculty for grasping the proper importance of details. His first publication was ''Ueber einige Fragmente aus der Mischna des Abba Saul'' (Berlin, 1876), in which he showed that the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

collections of the foremost teachers in the period before the final redaction of the Mishnah itself, including that of

Abba Saul Abba Saul ( he, אבא שאול, ''Abba Shaul'') was a fourth generation Tanna (Jewish sage). Name The "Abba" in "Abba Saul" is a title, and is not part of his name. Sources that mention Abba Saul b. Nanos and Abba Saul bar Nash probably refer ...

, agreed as regards all the essential points of the

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

. ''Ein Wort über die Mechilta des R. Simon'' (Breslau, 1889) was likewise an authoritative work in the field of halakhic exegesis. Lewy also published ''Interpretation des ersten, zweiten und dritten Abschnitts des Palästinischen Talmud- Traktates Nesikin'' (ib. 1895–1902), and ''Ein Vortrag über das Ritual des

Pesach Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or ...

-Abends'' (ib. 1904). His work and publications later became fundamental cornerstones for the Talmudic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and from there to all modern day Talmudic studies, being the first to methodically and meticulously gather sources and versions of the words of Jewish sages leading to their origins. He hypothesised that the original name of the unified tractate of the Mishna and Tosefta dealing with monetary issues now called by its three parts (Bava Kama, Bava Metzia and Bava Bathra meaning first second and third gate) was not called Nezikin (damages) but rather Dinei Mamonot (civil law) a more fitting name. In fact, it would probably be a more fitting name for the order (Seder, one of six sections of the Mishna and Tosefta) itself which is called Nezikin although besides damages it includes court laws, punitive laws, and moral laws. But his main proof was shown to be stemmed from a mistake and most sources point to the fact that both the order and the tractate where referred to as Nezikin.Epstein, followed by Sussman, and recently Sherlo

References

About Lewy Israel
on the now online Jewish Encyclopedia

External links

*
Hebrew translation of the prolog for his interpretation of the Jerusalem Talmud tractate Nezikin
Only Bava Kama was published, in a series o
articles in the yearbooks (Jahrbricht)
of the

Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (official name: ) was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. The seminary, at what is now an empty building plot (used as a ...

from 1895 till 1914. Judaic studies 1841 births 1917 deaths {{Germany-academic-bio-stub