Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe (or Jaffe or Joffe) ( 1530 – 7 March 1612;

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: מרדכי בן אברהם יפה) was a

Rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

and posek. He is best known as author of ''Levush Malkhus'', a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

of the Jews of Eastern Europe. He is known as "the Levush" or "the Ba'al Halevushim", for this work.

Biography

Yoffe was born in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

; he could count amongst his ancestors

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

and before him Hillel, Elnathan (governor of Judea) and ultimately back to King David. His father, Abraham b. Joseph, was a pupil of Abraham ben Abigdor. The ''Levush'' studied under Moses Isserles and Solomon Luria; Mattithiah b. Solomon Delacrut was his teacher in

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

. Yoffe also studied philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics (apparently at the insistence of Isserles). He was

Rosh Yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

until 1561, when, by order of the emperor Ferdinand, the Jews were expelled from

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. Yoffe then went to Venice and studied astronomy (1561–71). In 1572 he was elected rabbi of

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

; in 1588, rabbi of

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

, where he became one of the leaders of the Council of Four Lands. Later Yoffe accepted the rabbinate of Kremenetz. In 1592 he was called as rabbi to

; from 1599 until his death he occupied the position of chief rabbi of Posen. In addition to his Torah study, writing and teaching he was involved with communal needs, and attended the fairs at Yaroslav and

, where community leaders and rabbis from large communities met to discuss matters of general interest. These meetings were the forerunners of the Council of the Four Lands and the Council of Lithuania. He is also a patriarch of the Jaffe family. A different Rabbi Mordecai Yoffe - Mordecai ben Moses Yoffe - is known for the controversy over his 1549 appointment as rabbi of

, which had to be settled by Queen Bona, and eventually led the Lithuanian government to formalize many of the procedures of the Jewish community.

Works

Levush Malkhus is a work of practical halacha, accompanied by the reasons behind the various halachic decisions according to logic and earlier sources, and includes sections on Torah commentary, philosophy, and mysticism. This work was divided into ten sections known as "levushim" (garments, or "attires"). While still in his youth, Rabbi Yoffe had the idea to compile a book on Jewish law, which would be used for making halachic decisions. The appearance of R' Yosef Caro's Shulchan Arukh, a digest of his Beit Yosef, led Rabbi Yoffe to consider whether he should continue writing his own work. On reflection, he concluded that there was room for it since it would contain "those laws observed by the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

of Bohemia." When R' Moshe Isserles' gloss to the Shulḥan Arukh (called ''Mappah'') appeared in Cracow in 1578, Rabbi Yoffe felt that Rabbi Isserles had been too brief as had Rav Yosef Caro in the Shulḥan Arukh, and decided to resume his original work, "that will be midway between the two extremes: the lengthy Beit Yosef of Caro on the one hand, and on the other Rav Yosef Caro's Shulḥan Arukh together with the Mappah of Rabbi Isserles, which is too brief." In all, Rabbi Yoffe worked on this book almost 50 years. However, after completing his book he was confronted by another Rabbi who had also written a similar work, although not as extensive as Rabbi Yoffe's. They reached an agreement to publish Rabbi Yoffe's book and to present the other Rabbi's additional comments in glosses (hagahos) throughout the book. The work is organised as follows. The first five "attires" are devoted to the laws expounded in Rav Yosef Caro's Beit Yosef; the sixth, ''Ha-Orah'' is an elucidation of

's biblical commentary; the seventh, ''Simḥah ve-Sason'', contains sermons for holidays and weddings. Rabbi Yoffe collectively termed the last three, "rabbinic robes," considering that these should be learned by "every student in that order – philosophy, astronomy, and Kabbalah." These are: the eighth, ''Pinnat Yikrat'', is a commentary on

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

' Guide of the Perplexed; the ninth, ''Eder Yakar'', is a commentary on the laws of the

Jewish calendar The Hebrew calendar (), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as ''yahrzeits ...

according to Maimonides and an additional commentary on Abraham bar Hiyya's geographical-astronomical ''Tzurat ha-Aretz''; the tenth, ''Even Yikrat'', is on Menahem Recanati's commentary on the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

. The Levush is an exception among the codifiers in treating ritual-legal matters from a kabbalistic standpoint; his approach, to a certain extent, "tended to draw together the Talmudists and kabbalists, otherwise in danger of an open breach".

External links and references

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Mordecai Jaffe
jewishencyclopedia.com

chabad.org

jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Jaffe, Mordecai Ben Abraham
The Levush in the Pedigree of Jaffe-Family {{DEFAULTSORT:Yoffe, Mordecai 16th-century rabbis from Bohemia 1530s births 1612 deaths Jewish Czech writers Rabbis from Prague 16th-century Polish rabbis 16th-century Polish writers 17th-century Polish rabbis Clergy from Poznań Authors of books on Jewish law Rabbis from Grodno Exponents of Jewish law Poskim