ISAAC BEN JACOB MIN HA-LEVIYYIM

ISAAC BEN JACOB MIN HA-LEVIYYIM ("of the levites"; b. 1621), Italian rabbi. He was orphaned at an early age and was brought up in the house of his grandfather, leone modena . He was a printer, proofreader, cantor, and preacher in his native Venice. He was the author of Ma'asei Ḥakhamim (Venice, 1647), talmudic aggadot based on Jacob ibn Ḥabib 's Ein Ya'akov, Leone da Modena's Beit Yehudah, with commentaries; Medabber Tahpukhot, memoirs (published by L. Blau); Yiẓḥak Meẓaḥek, an anthology of poems, apparently no longer extant (several of Isaac's poems have been printed in other works, e.g., Yom Tov Valvason's Hed Urim, Venice, 1662); extracts from moses cordovero 's Pardes Rimmonim (Salonika n.d., Venice, 1586); and Pesikta Rabbati, a collection of decisions (neither of the latter works is extant). Isaac also wrote introductions to numerous works by others, including his grandfather's Magen va-Ḥerev. He was one of those who took part in the inquiry against nathan of gaza (see samuel aboab , Devar Shemu'el, no. 375). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Blau (ed.), Leo Modenas Briefe und Schriftstuecke (1905), 74 (Ger. section), 165 (Heb. section); idem, in: HHY, 2 (1912), 168–71; 3 (1914), 45–54, 69–96; Scholem, Shabbetai Ẓevi, 2 (1957), 417–9; Leone (Judah Aryeh of) Modena, Ziknei Yehudah, ed. by S. Simonson (1956), 44 (introd.). (Umberto (Moses David) Cassuto)