His most important production is the Yefeh 'Enayim, (trans.: "beautiful eyes") giving the parallel passages found in the Babylonian Talmud, the Yerushalmi, the Midrashim, the Pesichtas, and other ancient rabbinic productions, occasionally with critical remarks which are of the greatest value to the rabbinic student.
The sources from which Yerushalmi drew must have been accessible to the author of Eichah Rabbah, which was certainly edited some time after the completion of the former, and which probably borrowed from it.
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The other arguments of the Gottesdienstliche Vorträge likewise fail to prove such a late date for the Midrash, especially since Zunz himself concludes that the authorities mentioned therein by name are not later than Yerushalmi.
The Judean sources, the Yerushalmi and the haggadic midrashim, introduce baraitot from this Mekilta with the phrase, "Teni R. Shim'on" = "R. Simeon has taught" (comp. Friedmann, introduction to his edition of the Mekilta, pp. 55 et seq.; Hoffmann, l.c. p. 48).
The first part, the midrash proper, is found also in the Yalḳuṭ to Jonah (part ii., §§ 550-551), with the exception of a few missing passages and with several variations; but here the Pirḳe Rabbi Eli'ezer is given as the source (for some passages, Yerushalmi and Babli).
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from the Pirḳe Rabbi Eli'ezer, and borrowed also from Yerushalmi and Babli.
Ishmael was of opinion that the Torah was conveyed in the language of man (Yerushalmi Yevamot, viii. 8d; Yerushalmi Nedarim, i. 36c), and that therefore a seemingly pleonastic word or syllable can not be taken as a basis for new deductions.
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He said, "The Scripture tells us, 'Thou shalt teach them the things thou hast seen at Horeb to thy sons and to thy sons' sons;' and how may one live to teach his sons' sons unless one marries early?" (Deuteronomy 4:9 Yerushalmi Kiddushin, i. 29b; Kiddushin 61a)
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29: "Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (Yerushalmi Berakhot, viii.
Hoffmann himself admits, however, that the expression "de-bet Rab" in Yerushalmi certainly indicates Rab's school; so that it is in any case doubtful whether a different usage is to be assumed in the case of Babli.
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Babli, as compared with Yerushalmi, cites Sifra less accurately, sometimes abbreviating and sometimes amplifying it; e.g., Ḳid. 57b, which is the amplification of Sifra, Nedabah, xvii.
The gold and blue striped garments Yerushalmi Haredim such as Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok, Dushinsky, Neturei Karta, Shomer Emunim, Pinsk-Karlin, Karlin-Stolin, and many but not all in Breslov, as well as other non-affiliated Yerushalmi Haredim such as the Perushim are called Kaftans.
Yerushalmi subsequently became a convert to Christianity; he went to Rome, and was received at the College of the Neophytes, where he taught Hebrew.
In order to accomplish this, he gathered all the relevant material from the whole Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, and all other Braysos etc., and presented them in chronological order in a sefer he called Sidrei Taharos on Maseches Keilim.
The work is divided into three parts, the first consisting of novellæ on the Gemara, the second of novellæ on the Tosefta, and the third of novellæ on the corresponding tractates in the Yerushalmi.