This book was written by Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel, often referred to as Rabbenu Asher, or the Rosh. He was probably born in Cologne in the 1250s, and died in Toledo, Spain, in 1327. He was an eminent Rabbi and Talmudist, best known for his abstract of Talmudic law. He had eight sons, including Jacob, author of the Arba’ah Turim.
The book contains the Responsa (questions and answers) of the Rosh, which was first printed at Constantinople in 1517 and also in Venice in 1607. This collection of responsa is arranged according to 108 subjects, each of which has a special chapter, called “klal”, while at the head is a résumé of its contents and a numerical list of the responsa treating of each subject.
My 1885 copy, printed in Vilna, is not rare – but is special because it once belonged to Dayan Samuel Isaac Hillman.
Rabbi Hillman was born in 1868 in Kovno, Lithuania and died in 1953. In his youth he studied under his uncles, Rabbi Mordechai Hillman, head of the Rabbinical Court of Pasvatim and Rabbi Noach Yaakov Hillman of Pasval. He received Semicha (his rabbinical diploma) from very famous Rabbis: Rabbi Eliahu Dovid Teomim (then Chief Rabbi in Ponivezh), Rabbi Rafael Shapiro of Volozhin, Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk (known as the Ohr Sameach), and Rabbi Yaakov David Wilovsky of Slutsk (known as the Ridbaz).
In 1897 Rabbi Hillman became Rabbi and head of the Rabbinical Court of Berazino, in the Minsk region of Russia. My copy has Rabbi Hillman’s personal stamps from when he was in Berazino.
In 1908 Rabbi Hillman emigrated and was appointed Rabbi in Glasgow, Scotland, and in 1914 Chief Rabbi Hertz appointed him as a Dayan (Rabbinical Judge) of the London Beth Din.
Dayan Hillman’s great work was a series of books called Ohr HaYashar, with his commentaries and novella on various tractates of the Talmud. His son-in-law was Rabbi Dr. Isaac Halevy Herzog. Rabbi Herzog was the Chief Rabbi of Dublin, Ireland who was later appointed Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Palestine, and then the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel. Dayan Hillman also had a son, David Hillman, an artist, who produced the many Hillman stained glass windows which adorn the walls of many synagogues, particularly in the United Kingdom.
Rabbi Isaac Herzog was the son of Rabbi Joel Leib Herzog, of Leeds and Paris whose book Imre Yoel, published in London in 1922. I have written about him previously. Dayan Hillman’s grandson and Rabbi Herzog’s son was Chaim Herzog, the sixth President of the State of Israel, whose son, Isaac Herzog is the current President of the State of Israel.
The book has important Haskomos (approbations), including:
- Rabbi Yitzchok Elchanan Spektor of Kovno
- Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin of Volozhin (the Netziv)
Jewish Miscellanies 