Shabbethai Ben Isaac (Surnamed Sofer And Medaḳdeḳ)

Talmudist and grammarian; born at Lublin, Poland; lived at Przemysl in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; teacher of the Talmudist and cabalist Ḥayyim Bochner. Shabbethai was the author of: "Teshubah," a responsum on the writing of the Tetragrammaton, addressed to Meïr Lublin and inserted in the "Teshubot ha-Ge'onim" edited by Holleschauer (Amsterdam, 1717); "Nimauḳim le-Sefer Mahalak" (Lublin, 1622; Hamburg, 1788), annotations to the grammatical treatise "Mahalak" of Moses ben Joseph Ḳimḥi, and to the glosses thereon by Elijah Levita; "Haggahot" (Dyhernfurth, 1690), grammatical annotations to the prayer-book, with a critical introduction. He left in manuscript: "Ḳonṭres Yesod ha-Lashon," the rudiments of Hebrew grammar; "Ḳonṭres mi-Ḥiyyub Limmud Ḥokmat ha-Diḳduḳ," on the obligation of studying grammar, demonstrated from the Targum, Mishnah, Gemara, and Midrash, and from the Zohar, Sefer Yeẓirah, and other cabalistic works; "Baḥure Ḥemed," a defense of David Ḳimḥi's grammar "Miklol" against the criticisms of Elijah Levita; "Nimuḳim le-Sefer ha-Shorashim," a defense of Ḳimḥi's Hebrew dictionary against the criticisms of Elijah Levita. A poem by Shabbethai is prefixed to "Maṭṭeh Mosheh" (Cracow, 1590-91), a work on the practical ritual laws by Moses ben Abraham Mat.

Bibliography:

  * De Rossi, Dizionario, p. 272;
  * Luzzatto, Prolegomena, p. 33;
  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 120;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2243;
  * idem, Jewish Literature, p. 240.



T. I. Br.