When the publishers of the Vilna Talmud prepared their edition, they also added some early commentaries, whose authorship had not been established. Among these were the Tosafot Had Makamai on the tractate of Yevamot and the Tosafot on the tractate of Kiddushin ascribed to the Tosafist Isaac the Elder.
In 1806 Yehuda Lubetzky established in his book Bidke Battim that the author of Tosafot Had Makamai was Rabbi Meshullam be Moshe of Beziers, a thirteenth century scholar, and that this Tosafot was but one part of his Sefer Hahashlama on Alfasi, other parts of which Lubetzky had published from manuscript. Lubetzky also definitely established that the Tosafot on Kiddushin ascribed to Isaac the Elder was not by this scholar, but belonged to a later period and that the writer of this commentary had made use of the Sefer Hahashlama. In addition thereto he showed that author had also written commentaries on other tractates, and expressed the hope that with an eventual discovery of some of these, the name of the author might become known.
Thus wrote Lubetzky almost seventy years ago. Most recently, Moshe Yehuda Blau, who is engaged in the publication of manuscripts by early authorities, edited the commentaries of Rabbi Abraham of Montpellier on the tractates of Yevamot, Nedarim and Nazir, and in the course of the preparation of the manuscript cam to the conclusion that Abraham of Montpellier, who was an older contemporary of the Meiri, was also the author of the Tosafot on Kiddushin ascribed to Rabbi Isaac the Elder.
In his introduction to the commentaries of Abraham of Montpellier, now published in two handsome volumes, Blau proves his thesis in a most satisfactory manner by pointing to parallel passages, cross references and similar expressions found in these commentaries and in the said Tosafot on Kiddushin.
Blau, who in recent years has published a number of commentaries by early authorities and has established for himself a reputation as a conscientious researcher, has adorned his edition with short notes and references, which display his wide erudition. The edition is based on the author’s original manuscript, now found in the British Museum.
The commentaries of Abraham of Montpellier are strongly influenced by Maimonides and tend to elucidate the latter’s views. In his introduction as well as in some of his notes, Blau points to the fact that Abraham had made use of an Hebrew translation of Maimoides Mishna commentary on Seder Nashim other than that which has come down to us and had originally been prepared at the initiative of Rabbi Salomon be Aderet. Quotations found in Abraham’s commentary on Yevamot prove beyond doubt the correctness of Lubetzky’s contention that the Tosafot Had Mekamai on Yevamot is part of the Sefer Hahashlama by Meshullam ben Moshe of Beziers. The commentaries on the tractates of Nedarim and Nazir contain citations of the now lost commentaries of Rashi on these tractates.
Blau is not a “professor,” “lecturer” or modern scholar with ample time and means, but a true Talmid Hacham, whose love for the Talmudic and rabbinic literature has made him devote himself to the study and publication of the writing of early authorities, and he perseveres in his work despite enormous hardships. He has been enabled to publish the two volumes with the generous aid of funds and individuals whom he enumerates and to whom he expresses his thanks in the books. We mention this fact because students of the Talmud will be grateful not only to Blau for his devoted researches, but also to the people who had encouraged and supported him in his work, and will, no doubt, continue to do so in the future.
By: Tovia Preschel, Edited and Annotated by M. Y. Blau Jewish PressApril 13, 1962