Borgil, Abraham ben Aziz

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BORGIL, ABRAHAM BEN AZIZ

BORGIL, ABRAHAM BEN AZIZ (d. 1595?), Turkish rabbinical scholar. Borgil studied in Salonika for many years under Samuel b. Moses *Medina, later becoming head of the yeshivah of Nikopol (Bulgaria), where he employed a unique approach to the teaching of Talmud. His yeshivah became famous and the city became a center of talmudic studies. Borgil's novellae on tractates Bava Kamma, Bava Meẓia, Ketubbot, and Kiddushin were published under the title Leḥem Abbirim (Venice, 1605); the novellae on Yevamot, which are attributed to him, are probably not his. His novellae on Ḥullin are extant in manuscript (Moscow, Guenzburg Ms. no. 125). In his novellae, Borgil does not cite his contemporaries or rishonim but bases himself, for the most part, upon the tosafists, and, to a certain extent, upon Rashi. It was Borgil's practice to refer to manuscripts of the Talmud for text verification.

bibliography:

M. Benayahu, in: Sefer ha-Yovel le-Ḥanokh Albeck (1963), 71–80.