Isaac of Corbeil († 1280) is the author of this halakhic Small Book of Commandments also known as Sefer Mitzvot Katan (abbreviated SeMaK). This abridged version of the 613 positive and negative biblical commandments, and a few additional rabbinic ones, has been divided into seven daily sections to be read sequentially and completed once a week. After becoming popular in France, the SeMaK quickly reached Germany, where it was recognized as an authoritative halakhic work. This manuscript, B115, is the latest of the three manuscripts in the Braginsky Collection (also B240 and B182), exemplifying the complex diffusion of the SeMaK in Germany. The glosses are the work of Moses of Zurich, who lived in Zurich in the middle of the fourteenth century. Consequently, manuscripts containing Moses' glosses are called the Zürcher. Often comments and glosses in the form of rectangular shaped “windows” were added in the margins or in the text itself, producing aesthetically pleasing and imaginative page layouts. By not identifying the sources of these glosses, scribes frequently created difficulties in determining authorship of the commentaries. (red)

Online Since: 10/13/2016