Manuscript, Novellae and Commentary of R. Natan Shapira of Grodno on the Tur, Orach Chaim, Yoreh De'ah and Choshen ...

Manuscript, Novellae and Commentary of R. Natan Shapira of Grodno on the Tur, Orach Chaim, Yoreh De'ah and Choshen Mishpat - Poland, Before 1577 - Complete, Comprehensive Hitherto Unprinted Composition, by Contemporary of the Rama and the Maharshal
Manuscript, novellae and commentary on the Tur, by the Maharnash - R. Natan son of R. Shimshon Shapira of Grodno, author of Mevo She'arim and of Imrei Shefer [grandfather of the Megale Amukot]. [Poland, earlier than 1577].
Thick volume, in ancient semi-cursive Ashkenazi script, by several writers. Written in the lifetime of the Maharnash. Contains novellae and commentaries on the Tur, Yoreh De'ah, Choshen Mishpat and Orach Chaim. The volume is titled: "Novellae of R. N. Shapira on Yoreh Deah". The volume ends with a colophon: "End of the laws of Purim and end of the commentary of R. Natan Shlita, Gershon son of R. Binyamin Katz of Moravia of the Austerlitz community".
None of this manuscript has been printed. "Novellae and Commentaries of Maharan Shapira" which was printed and appended to the Tur in the El HaMekorot edition is a different composition whose content and scope differ from this work (see below).
The volume begins with novellae on Yoreh Deah (Simanim 1-294). In Simanim 189 and 231, is a reference to the Maharam of Padua with the appellation for the living [R. Meir Katzenelbogin - the Maharam of Padua died in 1565].
Following the novellae on Yoreh Deah are wide-ranging novellae on Choshen Mishpat which embody the main part of this volume (from Siman 1-Siman 427). This part was written by several writers and has many long marginalia and glosses between the lines, also written by several different writers. Some are signed at the end with the initials "M.V" [Mori V'Rabbi - (my teacher and my rabbi)]. Perhaps these glosses were heard from R. Natan Shapira at another time and were later added to the manuscript [see below about the various editions of the Maharnash novellae], or perhaps, these are novellae by another sage of those days. These glosses require further study; possibly one of the writers is a leading rabbi of that generation.
Part 3 of this volume contains novellae on Orach Chaim (from Siman 2, apparently lacking the first leaf, until the end of Hilchot Purim - the end of the composition). This part has been written in its entirety by "Gershom son of R. Binyamin Katz from Moravia, the Austerlitz community", who signed the colophon at the end of the volume.
The Maharnash - R. Natan son of R. Shimshon Shapira (ca. 1490-1577), author of Mevo She'arim and Imrei Shefer was a leading sage who lived in the generation of great Torah luminaries, the first Polish sages. He was a cousin and friend of R. Shachne of Lublin, Rabbi of the Rama, and of the Maharshal [his grandson, named after him, is R. Natan Shapira, author of Megale Amukot, 1585-1633]. He was famous for posterity as a leading posek known for his composition Mevo She'arim on Sha'arei Dura (Lublin, 1574) which eventually became a basic book on the laws of Yoreh De'ah throughout Ashkenazi countries. His glosses on the Rif and on the Mordechai were printed in the Vilna Talmud titled Hagahot Maharnash. Among his other works are Imrei Shefer, commentary on the Torah, and his well-known commentary on Birkat HaMazon. He served as Rabbi of Grodno (from which his cognomen "R. Natan Shapira of Grodno" was derived). A responsum regarding releasing an agunah which R. Shapira had written at the time he was Rabbi of Grodno is printed in the new Bach responsa (Siman 75). In his senior years, he was appointed Rabbi of Posen and its vicinity ("Greater Poland") and held this position until his death. In the book Tzemach David by his relative R. David Ganz (disciple of the Rama), he writes: "R. Natan of Grodno, son of my uncle R. Shimshon Shapira is a supreme Chassid who illuminated the eyes of the Jewish People with his commentary on Rashi and on R. Y. of Dura…". R. Binyamin Aharon Solnik, author of Mas'at Binyamin was among his famous disciple.
Commentaries and novellae on the Tur: The Maharnash novellae on the Tur can be traced to several manuscripts. In 1958, novellae attributed to the Maharnash were printed by El HaMekorot titled Chiddushei U'Bi'urei Maharan Shapira in an anthology of commentaries appended to their edition of the Tur. These novellae were gleaned from manuscripts held in Oxford's Bodleian Library (from the collection of R. David Oppenheim). Only a relatively small amount of novellae were printed in the El HaMekorot edition in comparison to the novellae on the Tur by R. Natan Shapira which appear in earlier manuscripts which are much more comprehensive and with variations (for example: the London-Montefiore Manuscript 177 and the Oxford-Bodleian Manuscript 256. The latter was written in the lifetime of the Maharnash, like this item). Evidently, the Maharnash delivered discourses containing different novellae each cycle his yeshiva studied the Tur; which explains the different compositions. We also found (in a manuscript in the Warsaw Library) a third composition of novellae by the Maharnash on the Tur (Yoreh De'ah), apparently from a third cycle of study in the yeshiva. This manuscript before us also contains a third compilation of novellae on the Tur Choshen Mishpat in several leaves which were added following the novellae on Choshen Mishpat (leaves [146-147], [155b-157]; Simanim 6-19, 22-46). The novellae on these leaves are not parallel to the novellae on those same Simanim in the previous set of novellae, and were not printed in the El HaMekorot edition.
As we mentioned before, these novellae on three parts of the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah, Choshen Mishpat and Orach Chaim) were not printed in the El HaMekorot edition. The parts on Orach Chaim and Yoreh De'ah do appear in other manuscripts, but to the best of our knowledge, these novellae on Choshen Mishpat do not appear in any other known manuscript.
In the Derisha and Perisha (by the author of the Sma) on Tur Orach Chaim and Yoreh De'ah, he cites novellae in the name of the Maharnash a number of times. These novellae appear in this manuscript (at the beginning and end of the manuscript are inscriptions in late Ashkenazi script [Galicia? 19th century?] with sources of these places in the Derisha and in the Perisha).
[236] leaves, 20 cm. Good condition. Stains. Minor wear and tears. Leather binding, with damages.
The manuscript was dated before 1577 according to the colophon at the end of the volume, in which the Maharnash is mentioned with the appellation added to the name of a living person. In Part 1 of the manuscript, the Maharam Padua is mentioned with the appellation given to the living and it reasonable to assume that it was copied in his lifetime, before his death in 1565.