'
Abraham ben Moses Alashkar Abraham Saba
THE JEWISH E>X"YCL0PE1)IA
one of the best cultivators of that particular field of literature from which spraujr llie JuiheoGermau
116
ABRAHAM NAFTALI HIRSCH HA-LEVI BEN MOSES.
SPITZ
folk-sonjrs. His father, Jloses ben Abnihani, lived at PrafTue (15S5-lti0o), bein^ preacher and judge there, as well
NaKIM.I
lIllCMII
Aquinas'
"
as author of a conimeutarv on the Passover Hagjradah. entitled "Helljiat Jiehokelj " (Portion of the He was employed as proof-reader in I^awgiver). the printing establishment of Mordecai Cohen. His brothers. I udah (known also as Loeb or Loew) and A/.riel. also occupied themselves with the "holy art of printing." as they styled it.
ics."
.
II
S(r
l.l,I.
ABRAHAM NAHMIAS (
'iniiMiciil.iry
Si-nz, Amkaiia.m MllSKS. Tninslat or of Thomas
I'.KN
on
.Vristotle's
Sic Xahmia^. .r.i:iiM.
Metaphys-
1.
ABRAHAM NAHMIAS OF VENICE. See M. ABRAHAM NAHMIAS, in Joseph Caro's NMiMiAS. AniiAiiAM, Bcril .bisipli ABRAHAM NAHMIAS, in nsponsa of David Xahmias. Sir Niimi~. ABRAHAM BEN NATHAN French author; Naiimi
-.
.r.i; ii
"
"
-
Si
3.
(
.i:uaiia.i. 4.
BiBLiooRAPUv: Stelnschnelder, Jeu'Mi Literature, Idem,
OK.
Bmll. No. 7722; Zunz, Z. G.
p. 239;
p. 282.
H. B.
ABRAHAM BEN MOSES ALASHKAB. Mom.>. ^iiK AM. .i;kiii ABRAHAM B. MOSES COHEN A learned
Sec
.i.
i-.i.n
ni Spimisli oiiL'in; lived in Italy during the liist half of the si.Meinlh century; died about ITmO. The data given by writers who menThe earlier biblioixraphers. tion himarecontlietinir. Bartoloici (" Bibliotheca Rabbinica," Nos. 44, si), 107) and Wolf ("Bihl. llebr." i., No. 100), eonfoimd him with Abraham of Pisa. Abndiam 1). Mo.ses Cohen was the editor of Judah he-Hasid's " Sefer Hasidim." to which he added a table of contents of one hundred colunuis. a lengthy introduction, and an epilogue. He also wrote a sui)ercommeiitary on Kashi. and another on the"Sheiltot," and made a collection of his sermons and responsa; but none of these works has been published. He is perhaps identical with the Abraham Cohen of Bologna mentioned in the responsa of Benjamin b. Mattathiah. inihlished in l.")3!t (^^ l"-^ and 249). as well as with the Abraham b. Moses praised by Solomon Athias (l."i4i)) and with the Abraham Cohen mentioned in the "Yuhasin" among the learned rabbis of Italy. ralibi. iHiibalily
BiBLlOGRAPnY StPlnschneider, 2f^: idem. Hrttr. liilij, i. 4;J:
p. 16.5; Conforte,
limtt. cols. 1322, 282.1,
( V7(.
.l>ralmm Zacuto, I'w/ia^oi, Kiirc lia-Dorut, p. 'H.
W. M.
ABRAHAM BEN MOSES DE FANO. See ABRAHAM BEN MOSES KOLOMITI. See Koi.oMiTi, Ar.i;Aiii c.kn Mosi>. ABRAHAM BEN MOSES OF REGENS-
F.VNO, Ar.liAIIAM r.KN ^[o^l;s
BUBG (called "The Gennan
III..
Great Rabbi Abraham")
wh.> tlourishcd about
tosalist.
I'-'oii
at
Hat-
Germany. His interpretations of the Talmud and halakic decisions are found in the Tosafot and isbon.
in other writings.
BiBLioGRAPHT: Zunz. Z. G. No.
p. 48; Michael,
Or
ha-I1ainiim,
179.
L. G.
ABRAHAM MOTAL OF SALONICA. See Sai.omi ABRAHAM BEN MTJSA (Moses): Moroccan
MoTi, Ar.i;MiAM.
en-
,
born in llie secimil half of Ihc- Iwilfth century, probably at Lunel, Languedoe. He received his education in that town, after which he is sometimes call<-d
C'HABN "= Rabbi Abndiam ben Klie/.er
ben Nathan has also the
.ssune
Nathan
— H.
designation^
"= of
"ha-Yarlii Lunel. since the Hebrew ynrenh is the eiiuivalent of the French bine), perhaps undir the guidance of B.VBjil) HI. (.see Abhaiia.m iikx His regular rabl)inical David ok PosijuifcnKS). .studies, however, were pursued at Dampierre. in northern France, at the academy of R. Isiiac ben Samuel, called R. Isaac ha-Zakcn. Abraham subsetiuently left hisbirlhplace. aiid.aftermuch traveling, finally settled in Tolrdo in 1204. where his learning ([uickly gaine<l for him the favor of the rich and learned Joseph ibn Shushan and that of his sons. Solomon and Isaac. To these patrons he dedicated his work " IlaManhig " (The Guide), or sis the author called it. "Manhig 'Olam." which he began in 1204 and completed some years later. In its present form the book consists of two distinct portions, the first of which comprises a collection of responsa. compiled from his numerous written and oral decisions, some of the former of which still bear the usual epistolary conclusion: "Shalom! A. B. N." (Greeting! Abraham ben Nathan). The second part contains extnicts from the halakic works of Alfasi, Isaac ibn Giat, and Isaac ben Abba Mari, a relative of Abraham's. The "Manhig" did not exert any important influence on halakic literature and is only occasionally mentioned by rabbis of the ^Middle Ages. However, it must be considered as of some importance in the history of Jewish literature, for it contains numerous literal quotations from the two Talmuds and most of the halakic and haggadic Jlidrashim, as well as from certain collections of the Haggadot which have been wholly lost so that the " Manhig " contributes considerably to the textual criticism of all of those works. It gives interesting and instructive details concerning sjieeial synagogical tisages, personally observed by the author in northern France,
southwestern Germany, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence, England, and Spain, and for which there Thus, he tells vis is no other source of information. that it was the custom in France forchildren to bring their Christian nurses to the courtyard of the synagogue on Puiim where their jiaretits and rehitives loaded them with gifts (p. 43". ed. Berlin). He relates
custom was strongly objected to by many, becanse the Jewish poor were losers thereby, and Raslii is said especially to have denounced it. Abraham is Siiid also to have written a work entitled "Mahazik ha-Bedek," upon the ritual for
rabbi and cabalist of the lirst half of the seventeenth who studied the Cabala with Abraham Azulai. lie wrote commentaries upon several treatises of the Talmud. His commentary on Xazir has been printed in the collection "Berit Vaakob" (.Jacob's Covenant) published by Jacob Feitusi, Leghorn. 1800. His commentaries on Yoma and Sotah exist in manuscript in the Bodleian Librarv at
also that this
Oxford.
Renan." Les Riibbins Frani^ais." nifri wahnzik Jui-fiedfk refer, as may be seen from page 2i. line 6, to the " HaJlanhig," which was designed to counteract any
centtiry,
.
BiBUOGRAPiiY
slaughtering animals for food, mention of which, however, is made by but on<' writer in 1467. Renan was mistaken in saying that this work is mentioned in "
Mirtiael,
Cat. Bodl. Ilebr.
MSS.
Or
hfl-Hai/yim, No. 167; Neubauer,
No. 461,
W.
B.
Ha-Manhig "
p. 747). for the
(p.
1//;
words
