המעין

The Porto Synagogue of Mantua’s Yizkor Prayers for Medieval Jewish Scholars

Rav Aryeh Leibowitz
The Porto Synagogue of Mantua’s Yizkor Prayers for Medieval Jewish Scholars
The London-based Valmadonna Trust houses a manuscript of a seventeenth century prayer manual from the Porto synagogue in Mantua, Italy.[1]  The sixteen pages Kuntres Beit Keneset records a number of interesting liturgical customs of this Italian community.  In this article I would like to present one page from the manual that features a series of memorial (yizkor) prayers recited in the Porto synagogue for a select group of medieval Jewish scholars. 
The prayers focus on a handful of leading Torah scholars from the medieval era and single them out for specific contributions to Jewish culture.  For example, a prayer is dedicated to R. Shlomo b. Yitzhak (Rashi) for he “enlightened the eyes of the exile” with his monumental commentary on the Talmud.  Similarly, R. Gershon is remembered in a prayer on account of the communal regulations that he enacted.  The remaining yizkor prayers memorialize R. Hananel, R. Eliezer of Tukh, R. Shimon ha-Gadol, R. Meir, R. Perez, R. Barukh, R. Shimshon, and R. Asher.

The Italian Community
While a number of great rabbinic figures are mentioned, ten in all, it is worth considering the many great scholars and figures that are absent.  For instance, no mention is made of the great Sefardic scholars, Rif or Rambam,[2] or of the brilliant Talmudist of Provence, Ra’avad, or of any of the great Catalonian Talmudists, such as Ramban or Rashba.  The only exception to this being a prayer on behalf of the North African Talmudist, R. Hananel, for “enlightening the eyes of the exile with his Torah.”
It is hard to know with certainty why specific scholars are mentioned without knowing how old the custom was to recite these yizkor prayers, or when the text of the prayers was composed.  Nonetheless, it seems likely that the Mantua community invoked remembrances of the ten rabbis because of a perceived communal relationship with these specific scholars.  I surmise that in Mantua these rabbinic figures were viewed as the spiritual forefathers of the community.
This suggestion would explain the fact that the scholars remembered in these yizkor prayers are predominantly from the medieval Ashkenazic world.  The Italian medieval community was very closely connected to Ashkenaz, and a number of the finest Italian scholars studied in German academies and were members of the German intellectual milieu.[3]
This conjecture could also explain the inclusion of the North African R. Hananel in this elite list.  Tradition records that R. Hananel’s father, R. Hushiel, was of Italian origin, and only arrived in North Africa in the wake of his captivity as one of the famous “Four Captives.”[4] In fact, R. Hananel himself was likely born in Italy[5] and is even referred to by other medieval Talmudists as “Rabbenu Hananel Ish Romi.”[6]  Moreover, it has been shown that one of the three primary sources for the material in R. Hananel’s commentary on the Talmud is the oral Italian Talmudic traditions that he received from his father’s academy.[7]
This suggestion is also supported by a second Italian manuscript of a prayer manual. This second Kuntres Beit Keneset is from the Italian city of Modena (thirty-five miles south of Mantua), and is currently held in the Museum of Italian Jewish Art in Jerusalem.[8]  The prayer rite in Modena contains the exact same series of yizkor prayers for the very same elite group of medieval scholars found in the Mantuan manual.  However, the Modena manual also contains a few pages of additional yizkor prayers recited for other rabbinic figures.  At least one of these figures is the well-known Italian medieval scholar, R. Yosef Colon (Maharik).  The rest appear to be early rabbinic figures that served the community in Modena.  Examples includeמהר"ר יחיאל סנגויני, מוהר"ר נתנאל טרבוטו,  andמוהר"ר אברהם רוויגו .  These local scholars are remembered for “strengthening the masses with their Torah and acts of kindness.”  The appearance of the Mantuan series in this Modena manual alongside local Modena rabbinic figures of the past strongly indicates that the scholars mentioned in the Mantuan series were viewed as the spiritual forefathers of the respective communities.

R. Eliezer of Tukh
A final note is in order regarding the medieval scholars mentioned in the yizkor prayers. Only five of the scholars mentioned in the yizkor prayers are singled out for the unique honor of having a prayer dedicated individually in their memory.  They are R. Hananel, R. Gershon, Rashi, R. Eliezer of Tukh, and R. Shimon ha-Gadol.  The others appear only as a group in the final yizkor prayer.  One of the five is a lesser-known thirteenth century German Tosafist, R. Eliezer of Tukh.  R. Eliezer was the redactor of a Tosafot collection known as Tosafot Tukh, and is remembered in the memorial prayer for “enlightening the eyes of the exile with his Tosafot.”
At first glance it is perplexing that R. Eliezer’s name would appear in such an illustrious list of scholars.  Was R. Eliezer of Tukh as influential in Jewish intellectual history as this inclusion suggests?  Moreover, we know that Tosafot Tukh was not the only redaction of the French Tosafist tradition, and in many regions other Tosafist collections were far more popular than Tosafot Tukh.  For example, in Menahem b. Zerah’s fourteenth century work Zedah la-Derekh we are informed that in fourteenth century Spain, the most popular text of study was R. Perez of Corbeil’s redaction of Tosafot, Tosafot Rabbenu Perez.[9] 
The popularity of R. Perez’s redaction seemingly continued for a while in Spain, and existed in Italy as well, as we find Gerson Soncino writing in the early sixteenth century that “…in Spain, in Italy, and in all lands, we have only heard of the [Tosafot] of Shanz (Sens), of R. Perez and R. Shimshon and their colleagues.”[10]  However, in light of this Mantua prayer manual, we can question Soncino’s testimony, at least with regard to Italy.  The inclusion of R. Eliezer’s name in a separate yizkor prayer in Mantua and Modena suggests that at least in that region of Italy, Tosafot Tukh was the popular Tosafist redaction.[11]  It is for this reason that R. Eliezer specifically is regarded as the primary representative of the illustrious Tosafist enterprise.  Indeed, the other well-known Tosafists mentioned in the prayer rite – R. Meir, R. Perez, R. Barukh, R. Shimshon, and R. Asher[12] – were relegated to the group memorial prayer and ambiguously remembered for their “Torah and communal regulations”.  The elevated stature of Tosafot Tukh in Italy is corroborated by the responsa of the famous Italian Talmudist R. Yosef Colon, who references Tosafot Tukh by name[13] and argues its supremacy over other collections of Tosafot.[14]

קונטרס בית הכנסת פורטו
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו חננאל עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאיר עיני הגולה בתורתו בשכר זה הקדוש ברוך הוא יזכרהו לטובה עם שאר צדיקים בגן עדן אמן:
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו גרשון מאור הגולה עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאיר עיני הגולה בתורתו ובתקנותיו בשכר זה הקב"ה יזכרהו לטובה עם שאר צדיקים בגן עדן אמן:
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו שלמה בר יצחק עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאיר עיני הגולה בתורתו ובפירושיו בשכר זה הקב"ה יזכרהו לטובה עם שאר הצדיקים בגן עדן אמן:
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו אליעזר מטוך עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאיר עיני הגולה בתורתו ובתוספותיו בשכר זה הקב"ה יזכרהו לטובה עם שאר צדיקים בגן עדן אמן:
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו שמעון הגדול עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאיר עיני הגולה בתורתו ובפיוטיו בשכר זה הקב"ה יזכרהו לטובה עם שאר צדיקים בגן עדן אמן:
יזכור אלדים נשמת רבינו מאיר רבינו פרץ רבינו ברוך רבינו שמשון רבינו אשר וכל שאר הרבנים עם נשמת אברהם יצחק ויעקב בעבור שהאירו עיני הגולה בתורתם ובתקנתם בשכר זה הקב"ה יזכרם לטובה עם שאר צדיקים בגן עדן אמן: