This book describes the establishment, growth and partial decline of one of the most important Jewish communities in the world. In the late 15th century the Polish-Lithunaian commonwealth became the centre of Jewish intellectual and legal activity. The culture created by the Polish Jews survived the decline and partition of the Polish state in the 19th century, and the area that was formerly the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth became a seedbed for further Jewish intellectual developments. The essays in this book provide a picture of the Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth during the periods of its finest flowering and initial decline.