Menahem Manesh (also spelled Manus, Manish, or Mannusch) ben Isaac Chajes (died 1636) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

. He was the son of Rabbi Isaac ben Abraham Chajes, a descendant of a pious

Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...

family; his father went to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in 1584. It seems that in his younger days, about 1590, he was rabbi of

Turobin Turobin is a town in Biłgoraj County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Turobin. It lies approximately north of Biłgoraj and south of the regional capital Lublin. History ...

. He is the first known rabbi of

Wilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, and his

tombstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

is the oldest in the old Jewish cemetery of that city. The Jewish community of Wilna was established in the last decade of the sixteenth century, and as Abraham Samuel Bacharach of

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

(died 1615) congratulates Ḥayyut on his good position in a far-away place, it is probable that Ḥayyut was really the first rabbi of Wilna. He is also mentioned in Ephraim Cohen's responsa "''Sha'ar Efrayim''," and in Moses Jekuthiel Kaufmann's "''Leḥem ha-Panim''" on ''

Yoreh De'ah ''Yoreh De'ah'' () is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha (Jewish law), the ''Arba'ah Turim'', written around 1300. This section treats all aspects of Jewish law not pertinent to the Hebrew calendar, finance, torts, marr ...

'', the first reference indicating Ḥayyut's proficiency in

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

. He died at Wilna about May, 1636. His grandson was Rabbi Isaac Chajes.

Works

His only known published work is "''Zemirot le-Shabbat''," or "''Ḳabbalat Shabbat''," which appeared in

(according to

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz (—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', —''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies ('' Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Nah ...

, in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

) in 1621, but of which only one copy is known to exist. He was the author of an

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

on the

conflagration A conflagration is a large fire in the built environment that spreads via structure to structure ignition due to radiant or convective heat, or ember transmission. Conflagrations often damage human life, animal life, health, and/or property. A c ...

of Posen and on the death of his brother Samuel, which appeared in his father's "''Pene Yiẓḥaḳ''" () (

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, 1591). The

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

contains a manuscript work of his, entitled "''Derek Temimim''" (Hebrew: ), which contains seven commentaries on the section Balaḳ of the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

and which is included in the Oppenheim collection ("Collectio Davidis," MS. No. 375,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, 1826). Its bibliography: * Fuenn, ''Ḳiryah Ne'emanah'', pp
63
66, Wilna, 1860; *

Fürst ' (, female form ', plural '; from Old High German ', "the first", a translation of the Latin ') is a German language, German word for a ruler as well as a princely title. ' were, starting in the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ...

, ' ii
321
* Zedner, ' pp
363
572; *

Walden ''Walden'' (; first published as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is an 1854 book by American transcendentalism, transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. T ...

, ''Shem ha-Gedolim he-Ḥadash'', p. 93, Warsaw, 1882.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayyut, Menahem Manesh 16th-century births 1636 deaths 17th-century Polish rabbis Place of birth unknown Year of birth unknown