From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also translates and authors his own original works.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also authors his own original works and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic text, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

Shmuel ben David Mosheh haLevi of Mezhyrich (ca. 1625-1681) was a Polish (Ukrainian) rabbi. He lived-at first in Mezhyrich in the district of Poznan. When Mezhyrich was destroyed by Czarniecki in 1656, Shmuel haLevi escaped to Halberstadt, where for three years he lived in great poverty and was assisted by a number of friends he made there. From Halberstadt he went to another town (whose name he refrained from mentioning because of the suffering caused him by its inhabitants), and remained there for a year and a half. In 1660 he was appointed regional chief rabbi of Bamberg, but since the authorities would not permit the rabbi of Bamberg to live in the town itself, his seat was at Zeckendorf, a village about two hours' journey from Bamberg. Shmuel based his rulings almost exclusively upon the halakhah, without regard to the local customs which originated with the scholars of Germany. As a result, he aroused the opposition of the rabbis and laymen of the district and was compelled to leave Bamberg in 1665. He dared to contradict the MaHaRIL by saying: "Knowledge is free; I will speak openly even before kings; for the philosophers have not idly used the simile of the dwarf who bestrides the shoulders of the giant." For a time he was without a post, during which he prepared for the press the manuscript of his Naḥalat Shiv'ah (1667/1668), a collection of formulas for all documents and records, interspersed with thorough discussions of questions of civil and matrimonial laws in connection therewith. He was appointed rabbi of Kleinsteinbach, where he remained until his death.