12 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Isaac Lampronti - "Pachad Yitzchak"
Rabbi Isaac Lampronti (February 3, 1679 — November 16, 1756) was an Italian rabbi and physician, author of the rabbinic encyclopedia "Pachad Yitzchak."
Yahrzeit - 12 Kislev
Resting place -
Lampronti was born in Ferrara. His great-grandfather, Shmuel Lampronti, emigrated from Constantinople to Ferrara in the 16th century. His father, a wealthy man, died when Isaac was six years old; his teachers were Shabbtai Elchanan Recanati and S. E. Sanguineti. In his fourteenth year he went to Lugo, to the school of R. Manoach Provenzali; from there he went to Padua to study medicine, while also attending lectures on philosophy. There he especially enjoyed the company and guidance of the physician R. Isaac Cantarini.
Soon afterward he went to Mantua to complete his studies under Rabbi Yehuda Briel and Rabbi Joseph Chayyim, who was also a physician. Lampronti formed an especially close relationship with R. Yehuda, whom he frequently mentions in his great work.
When war threatened Mantua, Lampronti, in 1701, following his family's wishes, returned to Ferrara, where he established himself as a physician and teacher, giving lectures for adults in his home both on weekdays and on Shabbat.
The work of Lampronti's life was his rabbinic encyclopedia "Pachad Yitzchak," material for which he began collecting already during his studies in Mantua, and on which he worked throughout his entire life.
He arranged in alphabetical order all the topics discussed in the Talmud and in subsequent halachic literature. This book became a standard reference text for all later rabbinic works in the fields of Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, and responsa. The first six volumes of his work were published during the author's lifetime, while the rest remained in manuscript until the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was published in Germany. This great encyclopedic work, produced without a computer, assistants, or other aids, remains a classic and the foundation for all subsequent works of this kind and purpose.
May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!