Kayle (exegete)

Medieval Jewish exegete

Kayle (Hebrew: קֵילְא) was a Biblical exegete who super-commentated on Rashi. She lived in the late Middle Ages in Germany. Kayle is the only woman known to have composed a Hebrew super-commentary, and demonstrates "learning and intricacy" with a "deft reading of Rashi".[1]

Four of her comments survive in MS Zurich Heid. 36 (f. 22r, 28r, 41r), copied in Ljubljana in 1515 and containing a collection of super-commentaries on Rashi.[2]

## Date

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Many of the other comments in the collection appear to date to the time of Yaakov Levi Moelin (1365-1427).[1] Kayla is given an honorific for the dead, suggesting that she had died by 1515, and possibly by 1434, which year is given by MS Zurich's scribe as the date of the manuscript which had served as his source.[1]

## Name

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William Henry Lowe (1848-1917) speculates that the medieval Jewish name "Kayle" is a corruption of Gayle, from Abigail.[3] Ephraim Zalman Margolioth (1762-1828)[4] and others argue that Kayle is Germanic, possibly a corruption of Gayle but deriving from geil, meaning "happy."[5]

## References

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1. ^ a b c Lawee, Eric (2015). "Biblical Scholarship in Late Medieval Ashkenaz: The Turn to Rashi Supercommentary". Hebrew Union College Annual. 86: 265–303.
2. ^ Eidelberg, Shlomo (1960). "ספר 'ביאור על התורה' (כתב יד של פירוש רש"י לתורה שנכתב במאה הט"ו)". Horeb (in Hebrew). 14–15: 252.
3. ^ Lowe, William Henry (1881). נשמתן של צדיקים: ספר זכרון ... כולל שמות ... הנהרגים והנשרפים בעיר נורנברג בשנת הק"ט. Jewish Chronicle Office.
4. ^ "טיב גיטין עם הגהות מהרש"ם - מרגליות, אפרים זלמן בן מנחם מניש, 1760-1828 (page 126 of 193)". hebrewbooks.org. Retrieved 2024-10-07.
5. ^ Cohn, Rella Israly (2008-09-05). Yiddish Given Names: A Lexicon. Scarecrow Press. pp. 96, 163. ISBN 978-1-4616-7454-2.