Responsa · In print

שו״ת רבי עקיבא איגר

Responsa Rabbi Akiva Eiger

The Kornitzer Edition · Hebrew and English side by side

Rabbi Akiva Eiger (1761–1837), Rav of Posen, is counted among the foremost halachic authorities of the modern era, and his responsa are known for the precision with which each question is taken apart. Every page sets the vocalized Hebrew in one column and the English in the other, so the two can be read together or apart. The first volume brings Teshuvos 1–52 — tefillin and the writing of sacred texts, tzitzis, parchment and lishmah, blessings, Shabbos and Yom Tov — each opened by a summary of the correspondent, the question and the ruling, with every source cited in full. The second volume brings Teshuvos 53–98, turning to Yoreh Deah: interest and heter iska, family purity, healing with prohibited substances, and questions brought to him by physicians. The third volume brings Teshuvos 99–126, largely Even HaEzer — suspected adultery and the status of a child, the agunah whose husband drowned and how a body is identified, errors in a get and the writing of names, and a conditional get. The fourth volume brings Teshuvos 127–170, largely Choshen Mishpat — a question of lineage, two witnesses against two, gifts, wills and a bequest to hekdesh, a creditor’s lien on land and when an oath is required — many of them letters to his father, his brother, his sons and his uncle. Many are letters between the great rabbis of the time — the Beis Meir, Rabbi Yaakov of Lissa and the Chasam Sofer — and show a hard case argued from every side.

See the volumes → Read a sample