ISAAC BENJAMIN WOLF BEN ELIEZER LIPMAN

ISAAC BENJAMIN WOLF BEN ELIEZER LIPMAN (d. before 1698), German rabbi. Isaac's father, eliezer, was called Goettingen, a name taken from the city of that name in Germany. Isaac studied under Isaac b. Abraham, av bet din of Vilna and Posen. He served as rabbi of Landsberg an der Warthe. From 1687 he was rabbi of Slutsk and then of Olyka. While still young, he wrote Naḥalat Binyamin, a work in four parts; only the first part was published (Amsterdam, 1682). The book is a pilpulistic commentary on 147 precepts, positive and negative. In the introduction he praises his brother judah, known as Judah Kaẓin ("leader"), one of the heads of the Berlin community. Judah assisted him in covering the cost of the publication of the first part of the work. Isaac's approach is explained in the introduction. He based all his works "on what was possible, without coming to any halakhic decision. That is why I have reviewed all aspects in the hope of arriving at the truth at least in one matter." His novellae to Bava Meẓia were also published (1686). Of his sons, eliezer, lipman goettingen, the rabbi of Coblenz, and Aaron, known as arnd benjamin wolf (1670–1721), who was born in Landsberg, are known. The latter's uncle and father-in-law, Judah Berlin, founded a bet ha-midrash in Berlin and appointed Aaron as its head. In 1697 Aaron was appointed deputy to the aged rabbi of Berlin, Shemaiah b. Abraham Issachar Ber, and when the latter died in 1709 he was appointed the official rabbi of Alt-Mittel-Neumark. From 1713 he served as rabbi of Frankfurt on the Oder and his brother-in-law, Michael (Mikhol) Ḥasid, succeeded him in Berlin.

bibliography:

E.L. Landshuth, Toledot Anshei ha-Shem u-Fe'ulatam ba-Adat Berlin (1884), 1–10; Lassally, in: mgwj, 80 (1936), 408f.; Pinkas Slutsk u-Venoteha (1962), 33f.; J. Meisl, in: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 1 (1946), 100.

[Yehoshua Horowitz]