David ben Naphtali Fränkel

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David ben Naphtali Fränkel or David Hirschel Fränkel, (c. 1704 – April 4, 1762), was a Jewish German rabbi.

Born in Berlin, for a time he was rabbi of Dessau. He became chief rabbi of Berlin in 1742. Fränkel exercised a great influence as teacher over Moses Mendelssohn, who followed him to the Prussian capital. It was Fränkel who introduced Mendelssohn to Maimonides' Moreh Nevuchim, and it was he, too, who befriended his poor disciple, procuring for him free lodging and a few days' board every week in the house of Hayyim Bamberger.

As a Talmudist Fränkel was almost the first to devote himself to a study of the Jerusalem Talmud, which had been largely neglected. He gave a great impetus to the study of this work by his Korban ha-Edah, a commentary in three parts (part 1, on the order Mo'ed, Dessau, 1743; part 2, on Nashim, Berlin, 1757; part 3, on Nezikin, ib. 1760). His additional notes on the Jerusalem Talmud and on Maimonides were published, together with the preceding work, under the title Shiyyure Korban, (Dessau, 1743).


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Commentators on the Jerusalem Talmud

16th century: Samuel Jaffe Ashkenazi • Elazar Azkari • Shlomo Sirilo

17th century: Joshua ben Israel Benveniste

18th century Elijah of Fulda • David ben Naphtali Fränkel • Jacob ben Abraham Kahana • Moshe Margoliot • Vilna Gaon

19th century: Yechiel Michel Epstein • Meir Marim • Joseph Saul Nathanson • Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky • Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov

20th century: Yechiel Bar-Lev • Yisroel Chaim Daiches • Louis Ginzberg • Chaim Kanievsky • Yitzchok Isaac Krasilschikov • Saul Lieberman

Lost commentaries: Maimonides • Menachem Ziemba

Unpublished commentaries: Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto • Moshe Feinstein

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Fränkel, David ben Naphtali" by Solomon Schechter and A. Rhine, a publication now in the public domain. Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii. 94; Eliakim Carmoly, Notices Biographiques, in Revue Orientale, iii. 315; Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 882; G. Karpeles, Gesch. der Jüdischen Litteratur, pp. 1060, 1071, 1100; J. H. Dessauer, Gesch. der Israeliten, p. 498; Heinrich Graetz, Hist. v. 293-294; Leser Landshuth, Toledot Anshe ha-Shem, pp. 35 et seq., Berlin, 1884; Meyer Kayserling, Moses Mendelssohn, pp. 9 et seq., Leipzig, 1862.

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