MENAHEM MENDEL BEN BARUCH BENDET:
Lithuanian Talmudist of the eighteenth century; born at Shklov; died in Palestine. He was a pupil of Elijah of Wilna, whose works he later helped to edit and publish. Elijah Gaon's commentaries on Proverbs, on the Shulḥan 'Aruk (Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah), on Abot, on the Sefer Yeẓirah, and on the Pesaḥ Haggadah, and his notes to the minor treatises, were published by him. After Elijah's death Mehahem Mendel went to Palestine and settled at Safed, where he became lecturer in Talmud in the bet ha-midrash established there in memory of Elijah of Wilna. He was the author of ten works, mystical in character, as yet unpublished (comp. Israel b. Samuel, "Pe'at ha-Shulḥan," Preface, Safed, 1836).
Bibliography:
- Fuenn, Ḳiryah Ne'emanah, p. 162;
- Joshua Heshel Levin and Naḥman of Grodno, 'Aliyyot Eliyahu, pp. 59, 67, Wilna, 1889.
