ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM

ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM (Riẓba; 12th century), French tosafist. Isaac is variously referred to as Riẓba, Riba, and Isaac ha-Baḥur of Dampierre. He was the pupil of Isaac b. Samuel ha-Zaken and also studied for a time under jacob tam . He was not a pupil of judah b. isaac -Judah, Sir Leon, as a number of scholars have thought (see Urbach, Tosafot, 269 n. 29). His brother was samson of Sens and his maternal grandfather, samson of falaise . He succeeded his teacher as head of the yeshivah of Dampierre. No complete work by him has survived, but his statements are cited in the tosafot to various tractates, chiefly Eruvin, Yoma, Mo'ed Katan, Yevamot, Ketubbot, Kiddushin, Nedarim, Bava Kamma, and Zevaḥim. He wrote numerous responsa, some of which are quoted in the Haggahot Maimuniyyot, the Or Zaru'a and in other works. During the Maimonidean controversy, Meir b. Todros Abulafia, an opponent of the books of Maimonides, approached him in 1202 to express his opinion. Among those who addressed problems to him was Jonathan b. David, the leading scholar of Lunel. There is mention of a work by him on the Passover seder, entitled Yesod Rabbenu Yiẓḥak b. Avraham be-Leilei Pesaḥ. His pupils included Nathan b. Meir and judah b. yakar , the teachers of Naḥmanides, and Samuel b. Elhanan. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gross, Gal Jud, 495; Michael, Or, no. 1073; Urbach, Tosafot, 219–26, 269 n. 29, 287 n. 14, 484 n. 106. (Shlomoh Zalman Havlin) ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM DI MOLINA ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM DI MOLINA (d. before 1580), Egyptian rabbi. Isaac's surname probably derives from the town of Molina in southeast Spain, and it may be assumed that he came to Egypt with the Spanish exiles. His father was a wealthy person and was on friendly terms with the nagid, isaac sholal . Isaac appears to have headed the yeshivah of solomon alashkar . R. Isaac himself was wealthy and for a time was the head of the Egyptian mint, a position which was held by other Jews as well in Egypt in the 16th century. He is mentioned in the responsa of moses di trani (Resp. Maharit, vol. 2, no. 16) and of joseph caro (Resp. Beit Yosef, EH Dinei Ketubbot, 14) as being exceptionally strict with regard to (gershom b. judah 's) ban on bigamy, in contrast to Joseph Caro, Moses di Trani, israel di curiel and others, who took a more lenient view. Caro complains that Isaac slighted him and his work Beit Yosef in stating that it was a mere digest of the rulings of his predecessors. Isaac is the author of a commentary on the Mishnah. One of his responsa was published in the Avkat Rokhel (130) of Caro. A number of his responsa have remained in manuscript and three of them have been published (see bibliography). Isaac's name came to the fore during the scandal surrounding the Besamin Rosh (Berlin, 1793), by saul berlin , who falsely claimed the book to contain responsa by asher b. jehiel and his contemporaries which had been collected, annotated, and prepared for publication by Isaac di Molina. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. David, in: KS, 44 (1968/69), 553–9. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. David, in: KS, 46 (1971), 580–2; idem, in: KS, 61 (1986), 368–70;. Z. Havlin, Shenaton ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri, 2 (1975), 240–50. (Abraham David)