Rabbi Yisrael Lipschitz—the Tiferet Yisrael רבי ישראל ליפשיץ — תפארת ישראל
rabbi of Danzig; author of the Tiferet Yisrael commentary on the Mishnah
He was born in 1782 into a family of rabbis; his father, Rabbi Gedalyah, was rabbi at Chelm. He served as rabbi at Dessau and from 1850 at Danzig, where he died. He lived poorly and fasted much; it was said that he kept count of his fasts as others keep count of money.
His book is the Tiferet Yisrael, a commentary on all six orders of the Mishnah. He divided it in two: Yachin, the plain sense, for every reader, and Boaz, an examination of hard passages for scholars; the names are those of the two pillars of the Temple. The commentary came out in his lifetime, in parts, from 1830 on, and since then it has stood in editions of the Mishnah beside the Bartenura. In his prefaces he was not afraid of new knowledge: he reasoned about the age of the world and about fossils, seeking their place in the Torah.
He died at Danzig in 1860. His son, Rabbi Baruch Yitzchak, completed the publication of the book.
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Tiferet Yisrael on the Mishnah — the two columns, the prefaces and the edition from 1830
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — Dessau, Danzig from 1850, the years 1782 and 1860
- The traditions about his fasts — the way of life
Basis: documents and evidence.