Heilbronn, Jacob Ben Elhanan

German rabbi and mathematician; flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. After occupying various rabbinates he settled at Padua. He wrote: "Seder Meliḥah," a treatise in Judæo-German on the law of salting meat, at the end of which there is an elegy on the death of Abigdor Zuidal (Venice, 1602?); "Naḥalat Ya'aḳob," a collection of responsa, which contains, besides his own responsa, some contributed by others (Padua, 1622); "Shoshannat Ya'aḳob," multiplication tables, with arithmetical puzzles for exercise and primary instruction (a supplement to his edition of the "Orḥot Ḥayyim" of R. Eleazar ha-Gadol; Venice, 1623); an Italian translation of Benjamin Aaron Solnik's "Miẓwot Nashim," on women's three obligations (Padua, 1625). Fürst ("Bibl. Jud." i. 371) doubts whether the Italian translation was made by Heilbronn or whether the latter was the author and Solnik the translator. The Italians spell his name "Alpron" (Mortara, "Indice").

Bibliography:

  * Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 173;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1214;
  * idem, Jewish Literature, p. 261.



D. M. Sel.