PREMSLA, SHABBETHAI:

By: Isidore Singer, Peter Wiernik

Galician grammarian and scribe of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; lived at Przemysl. He was the author of a commentary (Lublin, 1622) on Moses Ḳimḥi's grammatical work, "Sefer Mahalak"; in it he defends the author against the criticism of Elijah Levita, a former commentator on the same work. His annotations to the prayers, which first appeared in Dyhernfurth (1690), were republished many times. He was a Talmudical scholar also, and one of his responsa, on the writing of the Tetragrammaton, is found in the "Teshubot ha-Geonim" (Amsterdam, 1707 [not 1717, as in Fürst]). Four of his works, which were left in manuscript, are known, including one on the necessity of grammatical studies. Ḥayyim Bochner (d. 1684, at Fürth, Bavaria) was his pupil.

S. P. Wi.