FRANKFURTER, MOSES

FRANKFURTER, MOSES (1672–1762), author, dayyan, and printer in Amsterdam. Moses, the son of Simeon, established a printing press in 1721 from which he issued books both in Hebrew and Yiddish. He later moved to Frankfurt where he died. Frankfurter wrote Nefesh Yehudah (1701), a commentary on Isaac Aboab's Menorat ha-Ma'or with a Yiddish translation of the text. This very popular tract was often reprinted, as was Sheva Petilot (1721), an abbreviated version of the same work. Frankfurter translated into Yiddish and published his father's Sefer ha-Ḥayyim (1712). From it he compiled Sha'ar Shimon (1714), prayers for the sick, in two parts, the second in Yiddish. He also wrote Zeh Yenaḥamenu (1712), a commentary on the Mekhilta de-R. Ishmael. When Frankfurter was in serious distress he sought comfort in dedicating himself to the laborious task of correcting the text and commenting upon it. He also wrote Tov Lekhet, notes to the law of mourning of the Shulḥan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah (1746); Ba'er Heitev, glosses to the Shulḥan Arukh; Ḥoshen Mishpat (1749), patterned after Judah b. Simeon Ashkenazi's Ba'er Heitev (1736–42) on the other three parts of the Shulḥan Arukh. Frankfurter edited several works, the most important being a new edition of the rabbinic Bible Mikra'ot Gedolot (4 vols., Amsterdam, 1724–27), adding 16 previously unpublished commentaries on the various books of the Bible including his own commentary under the title Kehillat Moshe; another group of this compilation interpreting the whole Bible is Komeẓ Minḥah, Minḥah Ketannah, Minḥah Gedolah, and Minḥat Erev.

bibliography:

M. Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen, 2 (1883), 74f.

[Jacob Hirsch Haberman]