Creator Bio
Pinchas Katzenellenbogen
1691–1767
Scion of an illustrious rabbinical family, Pinchas (Pinḥas) Katzenellenbogen served as a rabbi in Moravia and Bavaria. He wrote his mainly autobiographical book, Sefer yesh manḥilin, between 1758 and 1764. The book sheds light on everyday Jewish life in Eastern and Central Europe in the 1700s, including detailed descriptions of remedies Katzenellenbogen presumably utilized in his practice as a ba‘al shem (kabbalist healer).
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Sefer yesh manḥilin (Those Who Bequeath)
Behold, I am aged and my eyes are dim and my hands heavy and shaky, and at a time when my strength, enabling me to remain standing upon my watch, is ebbing away—with the yoke of the…
Related Guide
Life Writing: Biography, Autobiography, and Ego Documents, 1750–1880
The famous and the obscure, women and men, in epitaphs and private letters, ethical wills, cookbooks, and religious reflections, all reflect aspects of Jewish life in a period of great transition.