ISAAC FROM OURVILLE

ISAAC FROM OURVILLE (second half of the 13th century), rabbinic author. No biographical details are known of him. According to Gross, he originated from Ourville in Normandy, but Schwarzfuchs is of the opinion that the town of Orville on the border of the Champagne district north of Dijon is more probable. Isaac studied under Ḥayyim of Blois. He wrote a halakhic work called Sefer ha-Menahel which is no longer extant; however, extracts from it appear in the Kol Bo and the Orḥot Ḥayyim. The Kol Bo has a section (no. 143) headed: "The Laws of Isaac, of blessed memory, author of the Menahel." There have also been published: "Ancient ḥaramot of Rabbenu gershom , copied from the Sefer ha-Menahel of Isaac of Ourville" (Schwarzfuchs, see bibl.). Some (including Rapoport and Hurwitz) have tried to identify him with the Isaac b. Durbal mentioned in the Maḥzor Vitry who was a pupil of jacob tam . However, there is no basis for such identification, which would be impossible. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rapoport, in: Kerem Ḥemed, 3 (1838), 200 n.; Jacob Kopel Levy, in: Shomer Ẓiyyon ha-Ne'eman, no. 11 (5 Kislev, 1847), 22; J. Hurwitz (ed.), Maḥzor Vitry (19232), 36 (introd.); Berliner, ibid., 177; Gross, Gal Jud, 27f.; Schwarzfuchs, in: REJ, 115 (1956), 109–16; idem, in: Bar Ilan, Sefer ha-Shanah, 4–5 (1967), 214. (Shlomoh Zalman Havlin)