Isaac of Ourville


Isaac of Ourville was a medieval French rabbi, author of the mostly-lost Sefer ''haMenahel, a book of halakha''.

Life and Time

Isaac appears to have been a contemporary of Perez of Corbeil ;
Isaac cites Moses of Coucy's Semag, from the generation before Perez, while segments of Isaac's Menahel are, in turn, cited alongside the Perez's teachings.
His master was Hayyim of Blois,
who is possibly identical with Hayyim ben Isaac the Frenchman, the author of Ez Hayyim on Jewish monetary law, a disciple of Samuel of Evreux.

Toponym

Carmoly and others read as "Orbeil", a village in the Puy-de-Dôme department, while Gross considered this unlikely, as Orbeil probably had no Jewish population in medieval times. According to Gross, is probably Ourville, Seine-Maritime, or perhaps Orville, Orne.
Isaac is thus sometimes named HaOrvili.
He was confused by Samuel David Luzzato with a similarly named rabbinical authority, Isaac ben Dorbolo, after Rapoport's misinterpretation of the latter's patronymic as "d'Orbolo".

Work

Most of his only known work, the halakhic Sefer ''HaMenahel, is lost, but select portions have survived as follows: