Landsofer (Landschreiber), Jonah Ben Elijah (Known Also As Jonah Ben Elijah Bunzlau Or Bumslo)

Bohemian Talmudist; born in 1678; died at Prague Oct. 9, 1712. Landsofer made a special study of the Masorah and was well versed in the regulations concerning the writing of scrolls of the Law, whence his name "Landsofer." He studied also secular science and Cabala, and as a cabalist he, with Moses Ḥasid, was sent by Abraham Broda to Vienna to engage in a disputation with the Shabbethaians. Though he died young, Landsofer wrote several important works: "Ẓawwa'ah," ethics, printed in Asher b. Jehiel's "Orḥot Ḥayyim" (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1717); "Me'il Ẓedaḳah," responsa, at the end of which are notes on Euclid (written in 1710, and published by his grandson Yom-Ṭob Landsofer, Prague, 1757); "Bene Yonah," novellæ on the Masorah and the regulations concerning the writing of scrolls of theLaw (ib. 1802); "Kanfe Yonah," novellæ on Shulḥan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah (to § 111; ib. 1812). His pupil Elijah b. Azriel quotes, in the preface to his "Miktab le-Eliyahu," a work of Landsofer entitled "Me'ore Or," on corrections for scrolls of the Law.

Bibliography:

  * Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 448;
  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. ii. 220;
  * Hock-Lieben, Gal 'Ed, p. 29. (German);
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1429.



S. S. M. Sel.