Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen

Who is Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen?

Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Solomon Muhlhausen was a controversialist, Talmudist, kabalist and philosopher of the 14th and 15th centuries. His religious and scholarly career and influence spanned the Jewish communities of Bohemia, Poland, Austria and various parts of Germany, and his dispute with the principles of Christianity left a lasting imprint on the relations between Christianity and Judaism.

There is no comprehensive account of his life and career, which must be reconstructed from fragmentary references. According to Stephan Bodecker, Bishop of Brandenburg, who wrote a refutation of Lipmann's Niẓẓaḥon, Lipmann lived at Cracow. But Naphtali Hirsch Treves, in the introduction to his Siddur, calls him "Lipmann Mülhausen of Prague", adding that he lived in the part of the town called "Wyschigrod." Manuscript No. 223 in the Halberstam collection contains a document issued at Prague in 1413 and signed by Lipmann Mülhausen, as dayyan.