ר׳ ראובן מרגליות

ר׳ ראובן מרגליות (30 November 1889–28 August 1971), commonly rendered Reuben or Reuven Margolies, was a Galician-born Israeli rabbinic scholar, editor, bibliographer and librarian. Born in Lemberg to Moshe and Miriam Margolies, he studied with ר׳ משה זאב מזוזה and ר׳ דוד טוניס but developed chiefly through intensive independent study. After his father's death he managed the family business and later operated a Hebrew bookshop that became a meeting place for scholars. He received rabbinic ordination in 1914 from ר׳ מאיר אריק and ר׳ משה באב״ד, yet declined a salaried rabbinate. During the First World War he fled to Vienna and hid from Austro-Hungarian conscription while composing נפש חיה. In Galicia he published prolifically and held posts in Mizrachi and Zionist institutions. Following the death of his first wife, Chaya Gendil, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1934 and settled in Tel Aviv. From then until retirement in 1967 he directed the Rambam Library, developing it from a tiny collection into a major rabbinic research library. His more than fifty books joined traditional erudition with bibliography, textual comparison, biography, halakhah, Talmud and Kabbalah. Especially influential were מרגליות הים on Sanhedrin, יסוד המשנה ועריכתה, editions of ספר חסידים and responsa מן השמים, and his annotated editions of the Zoharic corpus. He disputed גרשם שלום's interpretation of the ר׳ יעקב עמדין–ר׳ יהונתן אייבשיץ controversy. Awarded the Israel Prize for rabbinic literature in 1957, he died at Ichilov Hospital and was buried in Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery.