Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/152

106 :

Abraham ben Elijah Abraham ben Hayyim dissertations on

cabalistic

together with

dam,

THE

1(563,

JKWISII ENCYCLOPEDIA

the Salibntli,

and

"

1600.

Other works written by him. but not published, are; (1) "Gale Razyya" (Revealer of Jlysteries), on the transmijrration "of souls; (2) "Zirutini" (Alphabetical Combinations and Gematria) (3) " Ila-Beriah" (On Creation), two volumes on he Cabala of Isaac

I

Ashkenazi

(see

Oppenheimer, "Catal."

fol.

8H(i;

quarto 930, 1033, 1036. 10.56). According to Azulai ("Shem ha-Gedolim ") he actually saw the Shekinah, or glorious presence of God, at the Wall of Wailing ("Kotel Ma'arabi") of the Temple ruins. Michael ascribes to him also the authorship of "Mashre Kitrin" (I'ntier of Knots), an ai)0Sf fnn'm. p. fiTfl; Michael. Or ha-Hauiiim, K>>, l.>t. who 'believes this Aitraham to be identical' with .linihaiii lia-Zakcn.

BiBLIOGRAPnT:

.T.

L.

S.— K.

ABRAHAM BEN ELIJAH. See Pikes, ABRAHAM BEN ELIJAH BRODA. 8ee Broha, AiiitAiiAM ABRAHAM BEN ELIJAH HA-KOHEN AT!IiAII M.

1!i;n-

German

ABRAHAM BEN ELIJAH OF WILNA:

publislicd

Mennnit ha-Maor." AmsterHeshit Hnkinah liaKazer," Verona,

" Kiz/.iir

Ei,r.ri[.

ritualist; flourished in thelifteenth

century.

His epitome of the precepts governing prohibited articles of food was printed for the first time in 1.599, as an appendix to the Basel edition of Isaac Dilren's "Sliu'are Dura." The author did not address himself to scholars, but to the masses, whom he desired to instruct in a concise manner on the letter to the commusubject of forbidden food. nity of Ilalberstadt, which is in.serted as an introduction to his epitome (p. 84), is an appeal to the members of that community to circulate the booklet among the people of the neighboring communities and to e.vplain it in German to those who do not

A

understand Hebrew. Identical with this Abraham seems to be Abraham ConEN-ZEDEJC, who, according to a note in the responsa (No. 88) of Solomon Luria (died 1.573). had put the Passover diniin into rime, in order to afford useful entertainment to those people wlio, according to ancient custom, spent the larger portion of the first two nights of the Passover in joyous devotions. It is quite possible that lie composed the above halakic poem at the request of the community of Ilalberstadt. The opinion of Michael, that this Abraham ben Elijah ha-Kohen is identical with the one mentioned by Maharii. (R. Jacob ben Moses MGlln), must be rejected on clironological grounds; for this Abraham tlourished later than Jlaharil, as may be Abraham ben Elijah haseen from Luria (I.e.). Kohen left some responsa in manuscript, which are now in the Bodleian Librarv. O.xford. England ("Cat.Bodl. Ilebr. MSS." No. 820), and which furnish, at least approximately, the date of his life. The period of his activity could not have extended much beyond the year 1470. BIBI.IOCRAPHT: Michael. Or ha-Hntni<ir), No. 42: Ziinz, Z. G. i. 11)1, i: Neubauer, Cut. Ilinli. Hchr. iltiS. No. 830.

L. G.

106

Russian 'I'almudist and author; born

in

Wilna about

died there Dee. 14, 1808. The .son of Elijah, the gaon of Wilna, a prominent Talmudist, he was educated under the supervision of his father, who was opposed to the fanciful mysticism of the Hasidim. as well as to the dry scholasticism which so absolutely dominated the rabbis of Poland at that timeas to |irevent the growth of all seieiitilic interests. According to the custom of the time, he married at the age of twelve years, but continued liis studies in the Talmudic colleges in other cities, and after a few years returned home, where he finished his studies 17.50;

It was due to his father's infather. fiuence that he developed a lilerary activity of a

under his

far more scientitic ehai'aeter than at that age or in that country,

was usually found f^specially inter-

ested in tlie history of the ol<l homiletical literature, he edited the "ilidrash Agadat Bereshit," with a number of other mostly pseudepigraphic works of similar character ( Wiina, 1802), adding valuable notes. The best part of this edition is tlie preface, in which, for the first time so far as we know, an attempt was made to give a com|)lete history of jilagiarist, Jacob ben the midrasbic lileialure. Naphtali Her/, of Brody, reprinted this edition with the preface (Zolkiev, 1804), but was careful to omit the name of Elijah Gaon wherever the son had mentioned him. He omitted, also, on the title-psige the mention of Abraham of Wilna's edition, referring only to the one which had been printed in Venice in 1618. Zunz. not knowing the real author, gave credit for the work to the i)lagiarist (Zunz," G. v.," 2d ed. p. 26S). und so did Zunz's critic, Gctzel of Brody (n^aST 'D. p. 4, Budapest, 1837). This introduction was only part of liis greater

A

" liiib Po'alim " (From Many Woiks), pubThis Imok by Simon Chones. Warsaw. 1894. an alphabetical index of all Midrashim known

work,

lished is

It seems that Abraham of AVilna believed literally in the statement that the eighty of King Solomon (Cant. R. vi. 8) meant concubines eighty .Midrashim. This is at li-ast testified to by Samuel Luria in a letter to Simon Chones (" Rab Po'alim," p. 9). The book, however, contains over

to the author.

one lumdred and twenty midrashic works. While .braham of Wilna shows greater interest in literature and literary (luestions than is found among his contem|mniiies. he has no idea of the meaning of lilerary criticism. He a.scribes the Zohar to Simeon ben Yol.iai, in spite of the many proofs against its

authenticity produced by various writers since the time of Abraham Zacuto. He makes, however, the ailmi.ssion that the book was preserved for several generations by oral tradition. So he considered the Pirke R. Eliezer (a fanciful Midrash written about the middle of the ninth century) to be written by R. Still, in spite of Eliezer ben Hyrcanus abotit Idll. its many shortcomings, the book is a very valuable one (even after Zunz has treated the same subject in his methodical manner) because the author has collected many valuable references from rabbinical ,

literature.

Abraham's interest in secular knowledge,quite rare in his

environment,

is

also manifest in the writing of

Hebrew geography, "Gebulot Erez," published He edited Menahem anonymously, Berlin, 1821. Mendel's index to the Zohar, "Tamim Yahdaw." to

a

which he added an introduction and notes, Wilna, 1808. Of his numerous inanusciipts which contained glo.sses to the Talmud, Jlidrash, "Shulhan 'Aruk," and explanatory notes to his father's works, a commentary on the introduction to the "Tikkune Zohar" (Wilna, 1867), a commentary on Psalms i.-c..