Hezekiah ben Jacob
HEZEKIAH BEN JACOB
HEZEKIAH BEN JACOB (of Magdeburg; 13th century), tosafist. Hezekiah, one of the last of the tosafists, was apparently a pupil of Samson of Coucy and *Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi. His appointment as reader of the Magdeburg community while still in his youth aroused considerable opposition. Moses b. Ḥasdai and *Isaac b. Moses of Vienna, author of the Or Zaru'a, intervened to settle the dispute (Or Zaru'a, nos. 114–15; Resp. Maharam of Rothenburg, ed. Lemberg, nos. 109–11). In the sources Hezekiah is also referred to as Yeḥezkiyahu, and was known in brief as Mahari'aḥ (M orenu H a-R av Y eH ezkiyyahu). He was the author of the tosafot to the tractate Shabbat, and of a halakhic work, which was never published. A manuscript of it existed in the library of the Jewish community of Prague and a description was given by H. Brody (see bibliography). According to him the manuscript, which covers 12 tractates, constituted the complete original work. Fragments from it and quotations are given in the Haggahot Asheri of *Israel of Krems and in various manuscripts of books on ritual law of that period. Hezekiah was the uncle of *Eliezer of Touques.
bibliography:
H. Brody, in: Festschrift… Adolf Schwarz (1917), 37–45 (Heb. part); Azulai, 1 (1852), 34 no. 35; Michael, Or, 374 no. 836; V. Aptowitzer, Mavo le-Sefer Ravyah (1938), 32, 338; Urbach, Tosafot, 441–3.
[Shlomoh Zalman Havlin]