JACOB OF VIENNA

JACOB OF VIENNA (end of 14th–beginning of 15th century), Austrian rabbi. Known also as Jekel of Eiger, he studied under   R. Moshel of Znaim, Moravia, and was rabbi at Eiger, Krems, and Vienna. jacob moellin consulted him, and Israel isserlein held him in high esteem. No responsa of his are extant, although almost all the great contemporary rabbis quote him. In halakhah he adopted an independent view, did not hesitate to disagree with his teacher and sometimes even with statements contained in alexander susslin ha-kohen 's Ha-Aguddah. He also judged cases of mayhem (dinei ḥabbalot), on one occasion imposing the highest fine known in Ashkenazi Jewry for such cases. He became renowned as editor of communal decrees (Breslau, in: ZGJD, 5 (1892), 115–25). Several of his pupils are known, among them Zalman Katz, author of Ha-Yeri'ah. Grossberg has published from a manuscript a commentary on the Pentateuch by a Jacob of Vienna who may be identical with this Jacob of Vienna (see bibliography). The commentary shows the influence of the German pietists and cites many other exegetes. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Gastfreund, Wiener Rabbinen (1879), 29, 32; M. Grossberg (ed.), Sefer Peshatim u-Ferushim al Ḥamishah Ḥumshei Torah (1848), introd.; S. Krauss, Wiener Geserah (1920), index. (Yedidya A. Dinari)