תּוֹלְדוֹת
Isaac of Chernigov, Rabbi Yitzchak of Chernigov (יצחק מצ’רניגוב), was a rishon who lived in the Kievan Rus’ in the twelfth century. He may be the same man as the “Isaac of Russia” who appears in English records from the year 1181.
He was known for explaining difficult pesukim. One explanation of his has survived. For the word yabam (Torah law for a surviving brother to marry his sister-in-law if couple was childless) , he found a parallel in the Old East Slavic tongue spoken in his land, and Rabbi Moshe ben Yitzchak HaNessiah of London brings this explanation in his lexicon Sefer HaShoham. It shows that the Jews of Rus’ in the time of Rabbi Yitzchak spoke the everyday language of the country around them.
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במקום שהמסורות חלוקות. His identification with the "Isaac of Russia" of the English records of 1181 is given as probable, not certain.
Isaac of Chernigov was a Jewish scholar in the Kievan Rus' of the twelfth century, frequently consulted by his contemporaries on questions of Biblical exegesis. He is probably identical with Isaac of Russia, found in the English records of 1181. His explanation of the term yabam, for which he finds a parallel in the Old East Slavic language, is quoted by Moses ben Isaac ha-Nessiah of London in his lexicon Sefer ha-Shoham. Leopold Zunz, and after him Abraham Harkavy, see in this explanation evidence that the Jews living in Rus' in the time of Isaac of Chernigov spoke the vernacular of the country.
בוויקיפדיה: אנגלית — תקציר מוויקיפדיה, CC BY-SA