Pinchas Roth RESPONSA FROM HEAVEN: FRAGMENTS OF A NEW MANUSCRIPT OF SHE’ELOT U-TESHUVOT MIN HA-SHAMAYIM FROM GERONA The first responsa were written by Baby- lonian Geonim in the 9 th century, as part of their campaign to increase their influence on Jewish life throughout the Diaspora. As the Geonic pe- riod waned, communities began to send queries to rabbis in other centers as well - in Palestine, North Africa, Andalusia, Italy and Germa- ny. Since then, the genre has become a peren- nial feature of Jewish culture, and it continues to flourish and to develop to the present day. Among the hundreds of volumes of responsa that have been composed over the centuries, She’elot u-Teshuvot min ha-Shamayim (Responsa from Heaven) remains unique 1 . The various manuscripts of ‘She’elot u- Teshuvot min ha-Shamayim’ record the name of the author in different ways. They all agree that his name was Jacob, but for some he was Jacob ben Levi, while others call him Jacob the Levite. Some scribes conflated him with Rabbi Jacob ben Meir, the renowned Talmudist known as Rabenu Tam 2 , with Rabbi Jacob of Corbeil 3 or even with Rabbi Eleazar Rokeah of Worms 4 . The question of his toponym is even more vexed: it appears in ten different forms in the manuscripts 5 . Bibliog- raphers have traditionally listed the author as Jacob of Marvège 6 , but Joseph Shatzmiller has suggested that the town is Viviers-sur-Rhone 7 . Beyond this information, which appears in the title of the work in the different manuscripts, all that is known about Rabbi Jacob is what can be culled from his responsa. In one responsum he mentioned an event that took place in the year 1203 8 . The rabbinic figures referred to explic- itly in the text – Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (d. 1103), Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi, d. 1105) and his grandson Rabbi Jacob Tam (d. 1171), Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières (d. 1198) and his contemporary Rabbi Zerahiah ha-Levi of Lunel (d. 1186) – as well as general references to the ‘Sages of France’ and the people of Nar- bonne make it quite clear that the book was com- posed in Languedoc in the early 13 th century 9 . Most of the responsa begin with the words 1 M. STEINSCHNEIDER, Jakob aus Marvége, der Himmelscorrespondent, «Hebraïsche Bibliogras - phie» 84 (1874), pp. 122-124; M. IDEL, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation, New Haven 2002, pp. 141-142. 2 MS Oxford 2274 (copied in Andernach, in the Rhineland, probably in 1388), fol. 28r (M. BEIT- ARIÉ, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to vol. 1, Oxford 1994, p. 435). 3 In several late manuscripts: MS Moscow, Rus- sian State Library, Schneersohn collection, Yevr. 51, fol. 39r; MS Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University 269, fol. 1r; MS New York, Yeshiva University 351 (‘R Jacob ha-Levi of Troyes of Corbeil’), and on the opening page of the ed. princ. (Livorno 1818, fol. 1r): ‘of Marvege and of Corbeil’. On Jacob of Corbeil, see E. KANARFOGEL, Rabbinic Figures in Castilian Kabbalistic Pseudepigraphy: R. Yehudah he-Hasid and R. Elhanan of Corbeil, «Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy» 3 (1993), pp. 88- 90. 4 J. DAN, Shu”t min ha-Shamayim meyuhasot le- R. Eleazar mi-Worms, «Sinai» 69 (1971), p. 195. 5 מיאורש, מויש, ואיירש, ואורש, מדיש, מורייש, .אורוש, וידיש, יאורש, מרויש 6 Which may refer to various places in France: A. LONGNON, Les noms de lieu de la France: leur orig- ine, leur signification, leurs transformations, Paris 1929, p. 67. 7 J. SHATZMILLER, Suggestions and Addenda to Gallia Judaica, «Kiryat Sefer» 45 (1969-1970), pp. 609-610 (Hebrew). For a rabbinic figure in Viviers in the early 14 th century, see I. LÉVI, Un recueil de Consultations Inédites de Rabbins de la France Meridionale, «REJ» 38 (1899), pp. 111-113. S. SCHWARZFUCHS, Supplément Bibliographique, in Nouvelle Gallia Judaica, Paris 2011, p. LIII**, sug- gested that the town in question is actually Meyrues or Myrves in Rouerge. 8 Responsum no. 69 (the numbers of the responsa follow the edition of R. MARGALIOT, She’elot u-Te- shuvot min ha-Shamayim, Jerusalem 1957). 9 I.M. TA-SHEMA, She’elot u-teshuvot min ha- 555