?ayyim Paltiel ben Jacob
?AYYIM PALTIEL BEN JACOB
?AYYIM PALTIEL BEN JACOB (late 13th–early 14th century), German talmudic scholar. ?ayyim Paltiel was a pupil of *Eliezer of Touques, and also, apparently, of *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg. He traveled through the cities of Bohemia and served as rabbi of Magdeburg. His questions to Meir of Rothenburg are included in the Cremona (1557, nos. 32–34), Prague (1608, no. 226), and Lemberg (1860, no. 507, et al.) editions of the latter's responsa and a number of his responsa to other scholars are also included in these collections. Of great historical importance is the responsum (Lemberg ed. no. 476) he wrote in 1291 from Magdeburg on the subject of the *?erem ha-Yishuv. He was one of the first – if not the first – to add the self-effacing epithet tola'at ("worm") to his formal signature, ?ayyim Paltiel Tola'at (abbreviated to ?apat). One of his responsa to two of his pupils was forwarded by them to *Asher b. Jehiel for his opinion (Resp. Rosh, Kelal 30, no. 4). ?ayyim Paltiel's chief importance lies in his Sefer ha-Minhagim, which contains the customs for the whole year, referring to benedictions, prayers, and festivals, according to the Ashkenazi rite. The work was later used by Abraham *Klausner, who adapted and amended it, and added other customs and explanations. The connection between the work of Klausner and that of ?ayyim Paltiel was first suggested by H.J. Ehrenreich in the introduction to his edition of Klausner's Minhagim (1929), and was proved beyond doubt when Paltiel's work was discovered and published in Kirjath Sepher by D. Goldschmidt (see bibliography). ?ayyim Paltiel thus emerges as one of the first authors of the *Minhagim books, which gained wide popularity in 14th-century Germany and which laid the foundation for the spread of the version known in essence as nosaa? Ashkenaz ("the Ashkenazi rite"). It is probable that he is identical with the ?ayyim Paltiel whose biblical explanations are extensively quoted in a still unpublished manuscript of a Bible commentary by a 14th-century French scholar.
bibliography:
Ziemlich, in: mgwj, 30 (1881), 305–16; Abraham Klauser, Sefer ha-Minhagim, ed. by H.J. Ehrenreich (1929), introd.; D. Goldschmidt, in: ks, 23 (1946/47), 324–30; 24 (1947/48), 73–83; Urbach, Tosafot, 456.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]