Yom Tov Lipmann Mühlhausen’s Sefer ha-nitsaḥon

Possibly of Alsatian origin, rabbi, philosopher, kabbalist, and polemicist Yom Tov Lippman Mühlhausen lived in Bohemia. An erudite scholar with a great command of halakhah, commentaries, the works of the German pietists, Spanish kabbalah, and Maimonidean literature, Mühlhausen survived a massacre in Prague in 1389 and witnessed other historic events, such as the Hussite uprising. Accordingly, his writings constitute an important source of information on this period. Mühlhausen visited various communities in Bohemia, Poland, and Austria, instituting takkanot (Jewish communal regulations) to combat what he saw as lax adherence to halakhah. In 1407, he was appointed as judge of the Jewish community in Prague, and most of his written texts date from this period onwards. Later, he served on the Council of Erfurt (consisting of the council of heads of Ashkenazi communities). Mühlhausen also conducted polemics with various clerical figures. His anti-Christian polemic Sefer nitsaḥon, written in 1390, circulated extensively in manuscript form until it was published by a priest in the seventeenth century. Over the years, it elicited many refutations. Other works by Mühlhausen include an influential text concerning the meaning of the letters (Sefer alfa beta, Book of the Alphabet), kabbalistic texts, prayers and piyyutim, and a work concerning the thirteen attributes of God.

Theodore Hackspan was a Lutheran printer affiliated with the University of Altdorf, Switzerland. He was especially interested in Jewish works.