SEFER KERITUT (TALMUDIC METHODOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS), RABBI SAMSON BEN ISAAC OF CHINON, CONSTANTINOPLE, 1515

The first edition of an influential treatise on Talmudic methodology.

Rabbi Samson ben Isaac of Chinon (fl. late thirteenth-early fourteenth centuries) was one of the last members of the school of Ashkenazic Talmudic commentators known as the Tosafists and was a well-respected scholar; Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (1326-1408) refers to him in one of his responsa (see lot 227) as “the greatest rabbi of his generation.” His writings include an exposition of the text of the get (Jewish writ of divorce), a commentary on some of the tractates of the Talmud (no longer extant), and a number of halakhic rulings printed in the responsa collections of Rabbis Solomon ben Abraham Adret (ca. 1235-ca. 1310) and Joseph Colon (ca. 1420-1480).

His most important work, however, is the Sefer keritut on Talmudic methodology and hermeneutics, the first such book by a Tosafist, which was probably composed in the early fourteenth century. The book is divided into five parts: 1) Battei middot, on the thirteen hermeneutical rules of Rabbi Ishmael; 2) Beit mikdash, on those rules that apply specifically to the Temple and the sacrificial cult; 3) Netivot olam, on the thirty-two hermeneutical rules of Rabbi Eliezer ben Rabbi Jose ha-Gelili; 4) Yemot olam, giving a chronology of the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud and setting forth rules for how to decide the law when they argue; and 5) Leshon limmudim, on the methodology applied in the Mishnah, Baraita (extra-mishnaic tannaitic compendium), and Talmud, as well as certain foundational halakhic concepts that appear frequently throughout Talmudic literature.