Attar, Ibn
290
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Attestation
b. Jacob ibn Attar: Cabalist flourished in Morocco in the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was the grandfather of Judah b. Jacob ibn Attar I. (Nacht,
" Attar's heart pulsated with Talmud he uprooted mountains like a resistless torrent his holiness was having severed all that of an angel of the Lord, connection with the affairs of this world." He published: (1) "Hefez Adonai" (God's Desire), Amsterdam, 1732— dissertations on the four Talmudic treatises Berakot, Shabbat, Horayot, and Hullin. (2) " Or ha-Hayyim " (The Light of Life), Venice, 1742 a commentary on the Pentateuch after the four methods known collectively as Pardes; it was reprinted several times. His renown is based chiefly on this work, which became popular also with the Hasidim. (3) " Peri Toar " (Beautiful Fruit), novellas on the Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah, dealing especially with Hiskiah de Silva's commentary " Peri Hadash, » Amsterdam, 1742; Vienna and Lemberg, 1810. (4) "Rishon le-Zion," Constantinople, 1750 consisting of novellas to several Talmudic treatises, on certain portions of the Shulhan 'Aruk, on the terminology of Maimonides, on the five Megillot, on the Prophets and on Proverbs. (5) Under the same title were published at Polna, 1804, his See notes on Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Isaiah, etc.
"Mekor Hayyim,"
Kuttower, Abraham Gershon.
which
latter is not a clerical error, as Steinschneider thinks, but a form of the name borne by many individuals, as is evident from the spelling " Abeatar "
De
Castro's epitaphs (see his "Kern- van Grafsteenen, " pp. 25, 26). The Amsterdam branch of the family has frequently intermarried with that of
in
although the exact relationship of these famby no means clear. The connection of the
Mi'lo,
ilies is
various individual bearers of this name is also at times obscure, although the majority of them probably belong to the same family. The following list enumerates twenty-two Attars distinguished in literature from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century 1. Abraham Abenatar Melo Student at the rabbinical academy Keter Shem-Tob, in Amsterdam, toward the end of the seventeenth century probably a nephew or a son of Emanuel Abenatar (Kay:
serling,
2.
"Sephardim,"
p. 175).
Abraham
and Talmudist
p. 34).
Amram
Meshullam b. Jacob Attar Al3. Luzzato ("Ozar T°b>" 1880, p. gerian payyetan. 64) calls him "Amar," for which Steinschneider reads "Attar," in "Jew. Quart. Rev." xi. 342. 4. David Abenatar Lived in Amsterdam at the beginning of the seventeenth century (De Castro, I.e. p. 24). (A David Benattar was rabbi in Tunis about the middle of the nineteenth century. Cazes, "Notes Bibliographiques," p. 195.) 5. David Abenatar Melo. See Melo, David
.
.
—
—
Bibliography: Michael, Or ha-Hairuim, No. 894; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 641 Luncz, in Jerusalem, i. 132 (epitaphs) Nacht, Meleor Hayyim, Hebrew biography of 'Attar,
Drohobycz, 1898; Azulai, Shem ha-Oedolim; Franco, Histoire des Israelites d' Orient.
M. B.
L. G.
—
Abenatar. 6. Emanuel Abenatar Melo. Emanuel Abenatar.
Hayyim
ibn Attar
See
Melo,
L.
g.
Hayyim ben Moses
8. ist
and
cabalist;
ibn Attar
G.
Talmud-
born at Sale, Morocco, in 1696;
He was one of died at Jerusalem July 6, 1743. the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. Ten years before his death he left his native city for Europe, to publish his voluminous manuscripts and, in accordance with rabbinical usages, to submit them for approbation ("haskamah") to the leading authorities. He was everywhere received with great honor, wide learning, keen intellect, and unusual In the middle of 1742 he arrived at Jerusalem, where he presided at the bet ha-midrash Kene-
due
to his
piety.
set Yisrael.
One of
his disciples there
Joseph David Aztjlai, who seems
was Hayyim
have been completely overwhelmed by the excellencies of his master. In a truly Oriental strain he wrote of him: to
Talmudist of the eighteenth
by Abraham Ankava in his "Kerem Hemed," Nos. 155, 167. 10. Jacoh Abenatar Member of the governing
body of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation in Amsterdam in the year 1749 (De Castro, I.e. p. 39). 11. Jacob b. Abraham ibn Attar: Earliest
known member
Moroccan rabbi, famous for his learning, philanthropy, and piety. He flourished in Sale toward the end of the seventeenth century, but left that town, on the occasion of a rising against the Jews, and settled in Miguenez, where a college was established for him by the learned and wealthy Moses b. Isaac de Avila, from which institution many learned rabbis were graduated. One of his grandsons was Hayyim b. Moses ibn Attar (No. 8); compare Nacht, "Mekor Hayyim," (A payyetan, Hayyim Abeatar, is menpp. 2, 3. tioned in Halberstamm, I.e. p. 88, line 2.) 7.
9. Isaac Attar: century, mentioned
of this family.
He
wrote a super-
commentary upon Rashi to the Pentateuch, completing it in 1436. The manuscript is preserved in the Leuwarden Library, Holland (see Neubauer, in Roest's "Letterbode,"
ii.
83).
12. Jacob ibn Attar Died March 24, 1583. Saadia Longo composed a poetical epitaph on Jacob which was published by Edelman in his "Dibre Hefez," p. 14, and which described Jacob as a great
and influential man. He is perhaps identiwith Jacob, the father of Abraham b. Jacob ibn
scholar cal
Attar (Nacht, I.e. p. 34). 13. Joseph ibn Attar: Leader in the Jewish community of Lisbon shortly before the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal (Samuel b. Moses de Medina, Responsa, No. 371). L. G. 14. Judah ben Jacob I. ibn Attar Rabbi and author; lived at Fez in Morocco toward the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. His name is found attesting a pamphlet in the year 1700. He was chief rabbi of Fez and enjoyed the reputation of a profound Talmudist and saintly man. Popularly he was supposed to have wielded miraculous powers his biographer, Azulai, narrates that, being thrown once into a cage of lions, he remained there for twentyfour hours and then left it unharmed. He wrote in 1715 a work entitled "Minhat Yehudah" (Judah's Offering), containing Midrashic explanations to various passages in the Pentateuch, portions only of
