Moses Frankfurt

In 1721, Moses Frankfurt established a printing house in Amsterdam, in which he produced works in both Hebrew and Yiddish. In addition to his printing activities, Frankfurt was a dayan (rabbinic judge), an author, and an editor. His Yiddish translation of Isaac Aboab’s ethical work Menorat ha-ma’or (The Lamp of Light), to which he added a commentary, was published as Nefesh Yehudah (The Soul of Judah). This work was widely read and was reprinted many times. Frankfurt also translated into Yiddish a work by his father, entitled Sefer ha-ḥayim (The Book of Life; 1712), and published prayers for the sick in Yiddish. In Hebrew, he composed glosses on three works: the Shulḥan ‘arukh, a text concerning the laws of mourning, and a commentary on the early midrashic Mekhilta de R. Yishmael. He also edited a new version of Mikra’ot gedolot (known as the Rabbinic Bible, it includes the Masoretic text with Targum and commentaries), incorporating commentaries that had never before been published, among them his own. He later settled in Frankfurt, where he died.