Judah Minz

Italian rabbi (c. 1405–1508)

Rabbi

Judah HaLevi Minz

Personal life
Born| c. 1405

Mainz

Died| 27 September 1508

Padua, Republic of Venice

Spouse| HaLevi Kranch
Children| Abraham Minz
Parent|

* Elieser HaLevi Minz (father)

Religious life
Religion| Judaism
Part of a series on

Jewish philosophy

Hellenistic

* Positions:

* Hasmonean
* Sadducean
* Pharisee
* Boethusian

* People:

* Aristobulus of Alexandria
* Philo of Alexandria

Medieval

* Influenced by:

* Brethren of Purity
* ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
* Ismaili philosophy
* Jewish Kalam
* Kabbalah
* Rabbinic Judaism

* Spanish and European:

* Hasdai ibn Shaprut
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* Abraham bar Hiyya
* Bahya ibn Paquda
* Judah Halevi
* Abraham ibn Daud
* Joseph ibn Tzaddik
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* Maimonides
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* Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera
* Gersonides
* Moses of Narbonne
* Isaac ben Sheshet
* Hasdai Crescas
* Joseph Albo
* Elia del Medigo
* Judah Minz
* Isaac Abarbanel
* Judah Leon Abravanel

* Yemenite:

* Natan'el al-Fayyumi
* Mansur ibn Sulayman al-Ghamari

* Other:

* Isaac Israeli
* Saadia Gaon
* al-Muqqamaṣ
* Hibatullah ibn Malka
* Ibn Kammuna

* Positions:

* Maimonidean / Anti-Maimonidean
* Kabbalist
* Karaism
* Talmudic
* Tosafist

Modern

* Positions:

* Orthodox
* Sephardic
* Chabad
* Chassidic
* Conservative
* Reform
* Existentialist
* Reconstructionist
* Holocaust
* Renewal
* Neo-Hasidic
* Mussar
* Rambamist

* People:

* Francisco Sanches
* Uriel da Costa
* Baruch Spinoza
* Salomon Maimon
* Joseph Solomon Delmedigo
* Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm
* Eliezer ben Elijah Ashkenazi
* Tzvi Ashkenazi
* Jacob Emden
* Samuel Hirsch
* Shneur Zalman of Liadi
* Simcha Bunim of Peshischa
* Samson Raphael Hirsch
* Jacob Abendana
* Isaac Cardoso
* David Nieto
* Isaac Orobio de Castro
* Moses Mendelssohn
* Samuel David Luzzatto
* Elijah Benamozegh
* Moses Hess
* Eliezer Berkovits
* Eliyahu Dessler
* Monsieur Chouchani
* Emmanuel Levinas
* Martin Buber
* Gershom Scholem
* Abraham Isaac Kook
* Joseph Soloveitchik
* Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Topics

*     * Anger
* Chosen people
* Cosmology
* Eschatology
* Ethics
* Faith
* God
* Happiness
* Holiness
* Holocaust
* Messiah
* Microcosm–macrocosm
* Righteousness

* v
* t
* e

Judah ben Eliezer ha-Levi Minz (c. 1405 – 1508), also known as Mahari Minz, was the most prominent Italian rabbi of his time. As his surname suggests, he immigrated around 1462 from Mainz to Italy. He officiated as rabbi of Padua for forty-seven years, during which time he had a great number of pupils, among whom were his son Abraham Minz, and the latter's son-in-law Meir Katzenellenbogen. In a dispute he had with Elia del Medigo, he was supported by Elijah Mizrachi.[1]

It appears from Solomon Luria's responsa[2] that Minz was the author of a number of ordinances (takanot) at Padua. According to Mordecai Ghirondi, Minz was professor of philosophy at the University of Padua. Ghirondi further states that in recognition of Minz's services as professor, the authorities of the university placed his portrait, with an appreciative inscription, in the hall of the university, over the staircase. It is very likely, however, that Ghirondi confounded Minz with Elijah Delmedigo or Abraham de Balmes, both of whom lectured on philosophy before Christian audiences. In 1505, he partook in Birkat Hachama and was then already over one hundred years old. He died at Padua in 1508; he died 5 days after Isaac Abarbanel and would be buried side-by-side with him.

In the Siege of Padua, soon after Minz's death almost all of his writings were destroyed. Joseph ben Abraham Minz, his grandson, discovered sixteen of his responsa, and these were published[3] by Meïr Katzenellenbogen, who printed in the same volume his own responsa and the Seder Gittin wa-chalitzah of Abraham Minz. These responsa have been edited, and supplemented with an extended commentary and preface, by Johanan ben Moses Preschel.[4] Judah's responsa, though scanty, afford interesting information on the history of his age and on Jewish customs in Padua.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ comp. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Matzref la-Chokmah, p. 3b; idem, Elim, p. 29; Mizrachchi, Responsa, No. 56.
2. ^ (No. 6)
3. ^ (Venice, 1553)
4. ^ (Munkacs, 1898)

## Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

[edit]

* Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 412;
* Frankel, in Orient, Lit. vii. 520 et seq.;
* Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., viii. 253 et seq.;
* Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 1020;
* Graziadio Nepi-Mordecai Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, pp. 122–124;
* Preschel, in the preface to his edition of Minz's responsa;
* Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1344.

## References

[edit]

* This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Minz". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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