Premsla, Shabbethai

Galician grammarian and scribe of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; lived at Przemysl. He was the author of a commentary (Lublin, 1622) on Moses Ḳimḥi's grammatical work, "Sefer Mahalak"; in it he defends the author against the criticism of Elijah Levita, a former commentator on the same work. His annotations to the prayers, which first appeared in Dyhernfurth (1690), were republished many times. He was a Talmudical scholar also, and one of his responsa, on the writing of the Tetragrammaton, is found in the "Teshubot ha-Geonim" (Amsterdam, 1707 [not 1717, as in Fürst]). Four of his works, which were left in manuscript, are known, including one on the necessity of grammatical studies. Ḥayyim Bochner (d. 1684, at Fürth, Bavaria) was his pupil.

Bibliography:

  * De Rossi-Hamburger, Hist. Wörterb. p. 272;
  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 120;
  * Fuenn, Safah le-Ne'emanim, p. 82, Wilna, 1881;
  * Ha-Asif, v. 125 et seq.



S. P. Wi.