Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/57

11 Aaron ben Elijah Aaron ibn Hayyim

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

11

AARON FRANCO PINHERO. See Pin A AKiiN Kit N( AARON BEN GERSHON ABULRABI OF i<

IIKl:i>.

CATANIA

also Aldabi or Alrabi): (ctllLil hicilian scholar, cabalist, and aslroldj^cr; tlinirislied 14.">0. He was a son-iu law of Don Mosos Gabhai, an exile from Jlajorca. Aaron was the youngest of five brothers, all rabbinic

bi'twecn 1400 and

scholars; the others were Shalluin, liarnch, Moses, and Isaac. He studied in Trcviso, lluly. and was familiar with the seicniitic and philiisopliic literature of his ai;i-; he was u jioiid f;i'annnari;in. and well acquainted with the Arabic laniruaire. Like liis father, he believed in astrolojry, and loved to observe the horoscope. He was also an adej)! in the Cabala, thoujsrh at times his critical spirit came in conllict with its doctiines. On his travels he visited Tur-

key, Eirypt, Palestine, I)ainas<us, and KalTa in the Crimea. In .lerusjdcm lie hail many disputations with the Karaites, to which hi;, commenlary on the Pinlateucli refers with evident pride, as liavinir vinWhile dicated the cause of rabbinical theolo.u'y. in Home he was admitted to the itresence of Pope Martin V., who was surrounded by his cardinals. Martin V. was kindly disposed lowanl the Jews, and often discussed relijrious (|uestions with them in a On this occasion he projKJunded friendly manner. to Aaron a number of very pointed i|Uestions concerninj; Biblical

and Tahnudical

pas.siiir(s.

Amoni;

other lliinirs he asked if the use of the cherubin in the Holy of Holies was not rather antajrf>nistic to the Second Comman<lnient, which prohibits idolatry. Aaron in his commentary refers severid times to this discussion and to the answers he jrave. Cominir often in contact with learned Christians, Aaron had many occasions to defend Judaism airainst the polendcs of the Church, on the one hand, and It was the attacks of the Karaites on the oilier. this unceasinfT conliici that induced him to write a " Matteh Aharon " (The Stall of Aaron), book, called Keenly obin defen.se of the Law and tradition. servant,

and of an independent and

critical spirit,

judjared persons and opinions freely and openly. e.cels as a writer and as a Bible commentator, and often upliraids the Jews of his native land for thc-lr iL'norance and hollnw prcliiisions, at the same timi' iiointinir with aI<ir, he his disjigreenient with lialaUic interpretation. He was fully conversant wilh the views of the Karaites and Samaritans and eatrer, in his explanation of the Bible, to refute now Christian and now Jlohaminedan doctrines. He boldly exposes errors wherever he finds them, claiminjr "that it is more honorable for the wise lo conunil an error than knowinfrly lo misrepresent thi' Irulh." Nor does lie shrink from poinlinir oiil Ihe blemi.slies he finds in the chanicler of Ihe Patriarchs. Bein;; piiided solely by a love of truth, he, as a matter of course, does not spare such fjiTat Bible commentators as Rashi and Nahnianides. For the former Aaron enlerlaineil n very hiirh reirard; of the latter he freiiuenlly says, "Willi due diference to his honor, he misunderstood the Talmud" (sic his coiiiinentary upon (ieii. xxvii. 'J".2; Ex. xxiii. 11,

ajrainst a certain idolatrous practise. Notwithslandinj; his liberal mind and his keen investigating spirit, he was held in lii^'h esteem by his contempo-

may be seen from David Abi Zimra's menhim as " Aaron our Kablii " in No. 10 of his responsa, where he commends him for his liberty of tliouirht. He was a devoted Jew, who deeply deplored the political and social condition of the Jews of his lime, and all the more fervently gave expres.sion to his hope for Ihe speedy advent of the Messiah. For his cabalistic views he quotes Recanate and Joseph Sar Shalom, bul iiol the Zohar. Aaron states that he wrote a Hebrew grammar entitled " Ha-Meyasher " (The Levelerof the Road); raries, as

tion of

" JIafteh Aharon," refeiTcd to above, a cabalistic or metaphysical work " Nizer lia-Kodesh" (The Crown of Holiness); " Perah ha-Klohut" (The Blo.ssoming of ili<> Godhead). |iroliably of a simiAaron's lar character, and "Sefer ha-Nefe.sh " Works. (The Book of the Soul). Allofthe.se works are known only through his own quotations in his supercommentary on Kashi. This work, published from an incomplete manuscript, together wilh another supercommentary on Rashi by Samuel Almosnino, by jloses Albelda, and by Jacoi) Canizal, is one of the earliest books printed at Constantino]de, and is therefore very rare. According to his own leslimony, it was written in the year 14''0 (as Perles has shown); but he intended to compose, or, as I'erles thinks, aclually did compose, Perles has a larger commentary on the Pentateuch. furnished ample proof that Aaron Aldabi or, as he called himself, Aaron Alrabi was a man of great originality and merit, and it is to be hoped that his lost works will be discovered, and that editions of l;is commentary, b:ised on clear manuscripts exist;

—

—

Oxford aiiil elsewhere, will fully vindicate ill his character, though Graetz and Karpeles, in their histories, have attacked him. J. H. Schorr, in "Zion," 1840, first called attention to .bulrabi, erroneously calling him .Varon ben Mose AInilii but, owing to a misunderstanding of his remarks, he a.scribes lo him Ihe strange assertion that Moses translated Ihe Peiilateuchfrom the Arabicinto Ilelirew a misunderslanding repcaleil by Griltz. "Geseh. d. Juden" (Ihird edition), viii. i.-iO, and ing



—

by Karpeles. "Ge.sch. der Judischen Literatur," p. 771 wliereas Ihe author, in his commentary upon

—

xviii. '>, referring to the rabbinical Hnggadah that the angels who came to Abraham appeared as Arabs, sjiys that they spoke in Arabic, and that Jloses rendered their words in Hebrew a remark which lie repeats in his comments upon Gen. xxiv.

Gen.

—

and Ex.

Zunz, "Z. G.." pp.

10.

.'<-.')20,

and

al

i:

even stales

Sleiiisehiuider, "Cat. Bodl," call him Alrabi. Aaron's true name, however, is given in the acrostic written by him al he end of his published comraenlary.

xv lie

in

'.». Like Samuel Inn Meir and Maimonides, explains the law. "Thou shall not seethe a kid iN iMotliir's milk"iK. xiii ID), us u wariiiiiL'

ii.

.")

1

I

Bini.IOCiRAPHY:

Mli'hnel,

Or

/in-7fii;/)/i»i.

No^2Sl

J. Perles'



vliirmi (/rm/ioii .l/>ii(nilii In li'V.KI.Jiiivm.xxU Mii-'M»: Xeulmuer. <'liial

and

Taliuudic coninieiilalor; flourished al the beginning of the sevenleeiith cenlury al Fez; died at Jerusaleiu in l(i8"i. He was a member of the bet din, or court of justice, of Fez. and removed to Venice about IfiOS. to print his voluminous manuscripts. From Venice he went to Jerusidem, where he spent the last years iif his life, .aioli published: 1 " Leb (

1