Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro רבי עובדיה מברטנורא

From Bertinoro in northern Italy; his dates are known only approximately. He was in the banking business at Città di Castello—and at the end of 1486 set out for the Land of Israel.

The road took sixteen months: Rome, Naples, Palermo and Sicily, and from there by sea via Alexandria. He reached Jerusalem just before Passover 1488.

What he found there he described himself, and so it is known exactly: a community ruined by exactions, some seventy families, and those destitute. He took up everything at once—taught, preached in Hebrew—the one language all parts of the community understood alike, administered the money sent from Italy, and did not disdain to bury the dead. He raised the community up. He was deputy to the nagid, about 1491 became rabbi of Hebron, and by 1495 had returned to Jerusalem.

He finished his commentary on the Mishnah there; it was printed at Venice in 1548–49. Its design is simple, and therein lies its strength: he takes from Maimonides the explanation of the sense and from Rashi the way of explaining word by word, and does not argue but expounds. That is why it is printed in every Mishnah: a man opening it for the first time needs exactly such a companion.

He is buried on the Mount of Olives.