the support of the poor, which also added not a little to his influence. He succeeded in securing the abolition of the annual tax of 400 ducats, which had afforded such opportunity for oppression and injustice; in lieu a simple poll-tax payable direct to the government was instituted." "When, on the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many of the exiles settled in Jerusalem, Bertinoro became their intellectual leader. These Spanish Jews, far superior in intelligence, culture, and learning to the Musta'arabi Jews of Israel, presented Bertinoro with a site for a yeshibah in Jerusalem, which he founded, more than a thousand years after the extinction of the last academy in Israel. Considerable support for the maintenance of the yeshibah was given by the Jews of Egypt and Turkey at Bertinoro's written solicitation. , naggid or prince of Egypt, was especially helpful." "In the decade during which Bertinoro thus controlled the best interests of the Jewish community at Jerusalem, a radical change for the better developed. Shortly after his arrival he had actually been compelled upon one occasion to dig a grave because the community had provided no one to perform that labor; a few years later there had come into existence such benevolent institutions as hospitals, charitable relief societies, and similar associations, all under excellent management. His fame and reputation spread to all parts of the Orient, and he came to be looked upon as a rabbinical authority of highest eminence; even the Mohammedan population frequently called upon him to decide judicial cases. ... He harshly reproved the rabbis for exacting fees for services at weddings and divorces, a custom then general in Germany. ... He believed it their duty to perform religious ceremonies without monetary remuneration." Literary activity Theology "Bertinoro is usually known as the best commentator of the Mishnah; the importance of his commentary is illustrated by the fact that since its appearance (Venice, 1549) hardly an edition of the Mishnah has been printed without it." The commentary is based mainly on Rashi and Maimonides (the "Rambam"). "Bertinoro is also the author of a supercommentary upon Rashi's Pentateuch commentary (published under the title "Amar Naki" [Pure Wool]", Pisa, 1810; reprinted in the collective work "Rabbotenu Ba'ale ha-Tosafot," Warsaw, 1889)." Amar naki or "amar neqe" is a quote from Dan . "Some liturgical productions by Bertinoro exist in manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Nos. 1061;