Abraham ben Judah Minz - Biography

Abraham ben Judah ha-Levi Minz was an Italian rabbi who flourished at Padua in the first half of the 16th century, father-in-law of Meïr Katzenellenbogen. Minz studied chiefly under his father, Judah Minz, whom he succeeded as rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Padua. According to Ibn Yaḥya (Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah, p. 51a, Amsterdam, 1697), it was with Abraham Minz that Jacob Polak had the quarrel which ended in their excommunicating each other; according to most other authorities, the quarrel was with Judah Minz. Ibn Yaḥya further says that the Italian rabbis believe that Polak and Abraham Minz died on the same day (according to David Gans in 1530; according to Halberstam in 1541). Minz was the author of a number of decisions that were printed with those of R. Lewa of Ferrara (Venice, 1511). He was the author also of Seder Giṭṭin wa-Ḥaliẓah, a treatise on divorce and ḥaliẓah, printed with the responsa of his father and of his son-in-law (ib. 1553).

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Graziadio Nepi-Mordecai Ghirondi, in Kerem Ḥemed, iii.91;
• Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 114;
• Marco Mortara, in Mosé, v.307;
• idem, Indice, p. 39;
• Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 632.