תשובה הלכתית של רבי משה בוטריל

Moses Botarel, who was active in Avignon during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, is remembered mostly for his commentary on Sefer Yezirah. In that commentary, Botarel cited many literary works that never existed. Several decades ago, additional writings by Botarel were published. Those writings relate to Jewish law, and they too contain numerous quotations from imaginary books. This article publishes, for the first time, a legal responsum written by Botarel, found in a manuscript held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The responsum does not contain any explicit mention of fictional titles, but philological analysis reveals the ways in which Botarel reworked and obscured his sources.