ר׳ מרדכי בן אברהם יפה

ר׳ מרדכי בן אברהם יפה (c.1530–1612), known as the לבוש or בעל הלבושים, was a Bohemian-Polish rabbi, halakhist, kabbalist and communal leader. Born in Prague, he studied in Poland under ר׳ שלמה לוריא and ר׳ משה איסרליש and learned Kabbalah from ר׳ מתתיהו דלקרוט. He headed a Prague yeshiva from 1553 until the expulsion of Bohemian Jewry in 1561 forced him to Venice. During roughly a decade in Italy he deepened his study of astronomy, calendar science, philosophy and Kabbalah. Returning to Poland-Lithuania, he held rabbinates in Grodno, Kremenets and Lublin and participated in the Council of the Lands. He returned as rabbi of Prague in 1592 and later exchanged positions with ר׳ יהודה ליווא בן בצלאל, becoming chief rabbi of Poznań in 1599. His ten-part לבוש מלכות sought a middle course between the expansive בית יוסף and the compressed שולחן ערוך, explaining legal reasoning while preserving Ashkenazic practice. Its first sections, לבוש התכלת and לבוש החור, appeared in Lublin in 1590; later “garments” addressed the remaining divisions of law, biblical interpretation, ר׳ שלמה יצחקי, philosophy, astronomy and Kabbalah. The work became a foundational halakhic reference and generated an extensive supercommentary tradition. He died in Poznań on 7 March 1612.