Review of Yacov Boksenboim, Responsa of Rabbi Azriel Diena Vol. I

After Joseph Colon, Azriel Diena and Moses Provenzali were the leading rabbinic authorities in Renaissance Italy to have left behind complete collections of their responsa. Yet, until now, only the responsa of Colon have ever been published in their entirety while the extensive collections of the other two, along with those of a large number of other Italian rabbis, still remain for the most part in manuscript.1 In recent years, however, the Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies at Tel Aviv University, under the leadership of Professors Shlomo Simonsohn and Daniel Carpi, have published a considerable number of texts and studies on the history of Italian Jewry. Yacov Boksenboim's edition of the responsa of Rabbi Azreiel Diena (a project of two volumes of which the first has already appeared) represents one of the products of this ongoing series of publications.