(c. 1450-c. 1515). Rabbinic scholar and commentator on the Mishnah, known also by the acronym Ra'av (= Rabbenu Ovadyah mi-Bartenura). Yaré, an anagram of the Hebrew name Ari (or Aryeh), also comprises the initial letters of Yehi retsu'i eḥav ("Let him be the favorite of his brothers," Deut. 33:24). His surname indicates that his family roots were in the northern Italian town of Bertinoro.
In 1485, he left Città di Castello on a voyage to Erets Israel, writing an account of the journey in three letters to his father, his brother, and an unidentified person. These letters, containing much information of geographical, historical, and cultural interest, are among the best known in Hebrew travel literature. Bertinoro's journey lasted nearly three years, during which time he visited Naples, Salerno, Palermo, Messina, Rhodes, and Egypt. In Erets Israel he passed through Gaza, Hebron, and Bethlehem before reaching Jerusalem. There, with the aid of Nathan Ha-Kohen Sholal, the Egyptian nagid, he became head of the small and impoverished Jewish community. Bertinoro succeeded in reorganizing communal life and, after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, cultured Sephardi refugees helped to improve conditions still further.
Bertinoro's commentary on the Mishnah, first published in Venice (1548-9), has become as indispensable to Mishnah study as Rashi's commentary has to study of the Talmud. Drawing on Rashi and Maimonides, and writing in a clear, concise style, Bertinoro summarizes the talmudic discussion for those learning Mishnah without Gemara. In certain instances, he also utilized the commentaries of Asher Ben Jehiel. No standard edition of the Mishnah is now printed without Bertinoro's authoritative commentary. He also wrote an exposition of Rashi's Torah commentary; a homiletical work on the Book of Ruth; halakhic Novellae on those of his teacher, R. Joseph Colon; and various liturgical poems.
