Manuscript, Rulings by Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Messer Leon and Italian Rabbis - With Polemic Opposing the Ralbag and the ...

Manuscript, Rulings by Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Messer Leon and Italian Rabbis - With Polemic Opposing the Ralbag and the Kabbalists - Segulot - 15th/16th Centuries
Manuscript, rulings of R. Yehuda Messer Leon and Italian rabbis. [Italy, second half of 15th century or beginning of 16th century].
Handwritten pamphlet, ancient Italian Hebrew script. Title on first page: "Copy of the writings of Messer Leon of Ancona". Contains six long responsa by R. Yehuda Messer Leon and two by Italian rabbis, regarding two trenchant polemics which arose in Italy in 1455. One polemic deals with the regulations instituted by R. Yehuda Messer Leon on the laws of nidah which instigated opposition. The second is a ban by R. Yehuda Messer Leon on studying the book authored by the Ralbag, due to heresy he claimed to have found in the book, contested by rabbis who undertook to defend the honor of the Ralbag.
The manuscript contains sections which were never printed regarding the polemic surrounding the Ralbag. It ends with a list of segulot and folk-remedies for various cases.
The responsa in the manuscript:
1. A ruling with regulations of the nidah laws, by R. Yehuda Messer Leon, send to the Firenze community, signed by: "…Yehuda called Mes. Leon, in Firenze and other [places] in the Toskana region". At the end of the letter, R. Avraham warns of the ban and curse incurred by those who refuse to obey these regulations.
2. A trenchant polemic letter against the Ralbag, regarding his writings on the subject of Divine providence, Divine knowledge versus man's free choice. R. Yehuda writes of the Ralbag's doctrine: "His words cause destruction and tear down the bulwarks of our religion and obscure its light. Woe to the person who thereby stumbles…". He declares that the work is "erroneous" and "a complete heresy". R. David Messer Leon, son of R. Yehuda, attests that his father "decreed throughout all Italy under the penalty of banning, not to read the Ralbag's commentary on the Torah, since the Ralbag had become a heretic or took to evil ways in his beliefs and his captivating language… and this has continued for a long time…". (See enclosed material). In this responsum, R. Yehuda attests to the declaration of the ban: "Guard yourselves, let the heart of one of the people lead you astray to harken to his words, because this is complete heresy for all religious people and I have already announced this in the Treviso yeshivas and in a few of the Alemania [German] yeshivas". R. Yehuda also adds his opposition to the kabbalists, accusing them of attributing materialism and variations and plurality to G-d, ”due to their negative intentions and their treading in darkness…". In this letter, R. Yehuda writes that he spread the (aforementioned) ruling on the laws of nidah in the Italian region: "I have already decreed this ruling and have publicized it in the regions of Marche and Abruzzo and Puglia, Campania and the Rome region so that they should adhere to G-d's laws and his Torah" (the capital city of the Campania region is Naples).
3. Another letter on the laws of nidah, also sent to Firenze, by R. Yehuda Messer Leon.
4. A long sharp rejoinder by the Firenze Rabbi Binyamin ben R. Yoav of Montalcino, who fiercely opposed the words of R. Yehuda Messer Leon and questions his authority to ban and force regulations upon the Firenze community. Inside the letter, he also responds to R. Yehuda's letter against the Ralbag and defends his honor. He signs: "April 1455".
5. Another responsum (apparently, also written by R. Binyamin of Montalcino), defending the Ralbag from the accusations of R. Yehuda Messer Leon and another passage with his reply regarding his aforementioned ruling on the laws of nidah.
6. Letter with rejoinder regarding the ruling on the laws of nidah, by R. Shimshon son of R. Yechiel Refael Belin of Parma.
On the last page are various segulot and folk-remedies in a different handwriting.
The letters regarding the ruling on the laws of nidah were printed from this manuscript by R. David Frankel Rabbi of Husiatyn in his book "Divrei Rivot B'She'arim" (Husiatyn, 1902). In his introduction to the book, R. Frankel writes that he has decided to omit the parts related to the polemic of the Ralbag "for my own reasons". Therefore, the letter by R. Yehuda Messer Leon on the Ralbag does not appear in the book and also long sections related to this polemic were omitted from the other letters. Later, Prof. Simcha Assaf printed the letter by R. Yehuda Messer Leon (Simcha Assaf, Sources and Studies of Jewish History, pp. 221-225), but the rest of the sections which were omitted from these responsa have not yet been printed. Prof. Assaf wrote that R. Frankel informed him that "in the meantime, the manuscript has been burnt during the war at the time Russian forces entered Husiatyn", but as aforementioned, the manuscript has survived and is
presented here.
R. Yehuda Messer Leon was a 15th century Italian scholar, rabbi and head of yeshiva in Mantua, Ancona and Naples. He also served as a physician and even was endowed with knighthood. His son R. David, called his father "the greatest of his generation and light of our exile". These letters portray the power of his influence and his authority to dictate regulations to communities throughout Italy. R. Yosef Kolon, the Maharik, a contemporary of R. Yehuda, agreed to these regulations and supported him in his stand in the face of opposition, writing his full subservience to the "lion…whose words are white as a garment…treads the straight path, R' Yehuda head of the speakers…". Interestingly, R. Gedalya son of Yichye, in his book Shalshelet Hakabbalah, writes that R. Yehuda disagreed with the Maharik and following a dispute between them, the Duke of Mantua banished the Maharik and R. Yehuda from the city. R. Yehuda Messer Leon wrote many compositions, including Nofet Tzufim which was printed in Mantua in 1475, by R. Abraham Conat. This is the first Hebrew book printed in the lifetime of its author. Some say that R. Yehuda died in Moscow when Ivan III had him executed after he failed to cure his son the crown prince (see: R. Yehuda Messer Leon and his work as a physician, Daniel Karpi, B'Tarbut HaRenaissance U'Ven Chomot HaGhetto, Tel Aviv 1989, pp. 57-84).
[20] pages. 19.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears affecting text in margins of several leaves. Detached leaves, unbound.