Pinchas ROTH Ben Gurion University of the Negev
NEW LIGHT ON RABBI REUBEN BEN ḤAYYIM∗
Southern France occupies an important position in medieval rabbinic history. It was home to some of the greatest Talmudic minds of the twelfth century, and Maimonides found his first European audience among them.1 The writings of Rabbi Menaḥem Meiri (b. 1240) have captured the imagina- tion of many thinkers since the bulk of them appeared in the mid-twentieth century.2 The area is also famous for the polemics over rationalism and philosophical allegory, which raged in Languedoc in the 1230s and the beginning of the fourteenth century.3 These momentous events and major figures have received a fair amount of scholarly attention, but the majority of thirteenth-century sages have been almost entirely ignored.4 In fact, many of them were virtually forgotten soon after their own time. Rabbi Reuben
∗ My thanks to Prof. Simcha Emanuel, Dr. Jay Rovner and Dr. Yaacob Dweck. 1. I. TWERSKY, Rabad of Posquières: a Twelfth-century Talmudist, Philadelphia (rev. ed.), 1980; H. SOLOVEITCHIK, “Rabad of Posquieres: A Programmatic Essay”, in E. ETKES, Y. S ALMON (eds.), Studies in the History of Jewish Society in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Period, Jerusalem, 1980, p. 7-40; I. TA-SHMA, Rabbi Zeraḥyah ha-Levi Ba‘al ha-Ma’or u-Beney Ḥugo [Rabbi Zeraḥiah ha-Levi, Author of Ha-Ma’or and the Members of his Circle], Jerusalem, 1992; C. FRAENKEL, From Maimonides to Samuel ibn Tibbon: The Transformation of the Dalâlat al Hâ’irîn into the Moreh ha-Nevukhim (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2007. 2. G. BLIDSTEIN, “R. Menaḥem Ha-Me’iri: Aspects of an Intellectual Profile”, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 5 (1995), p. 63-79; M. HALBERTAL, Between Torah and Wisdom: Rabbi Menachem ha-Meiri and the Maimonidean Halakhists in Provence (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2000; C. TOUATI, “Menaḥem ha-Méiri: Commentateur de la Aggada”, Revue des études juives 166 (2007), p. 543-549; Y. ELMAN, “Meiri and the Non-Jew: A Comparative Investigation”, in E. CARLEBACH, J. J. SCHACTER (eds.), New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations in Honor of David Berger, Leiden, 2012, p. 265-296. 3. D. J. SILVER, Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy 1180-1240, Leiden, 1965; B. SEPTIMUS, Hispano-Jewish Culture in Transition: The Career and Contro- versies of Ramah, Cambridge (MA), 1982, p. 61-74; E. KLEIN, Jews, Christian Society, and Royal Power in Medieval Barcelona, Ann Arbor, 2006, p. 118-120; G. STERN, Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture: Jewish Interpretation and Controversy in Medieval Languedoc, London, 2009. 4. For many of them, the standard reference remains E. RENAN, A. NEUBAUER, Les rabbins français du commencement du quatorzième siècle, Paris, 1877, p. 431-734. Fifteen of these
Revue des études juives, 173 (3-4), juillet-décembre 2014, pp. 371-380. doi: 10.2143/REJ.173.3.3062107
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ben Ḥayyim is a prime example of this neglect.5 His name is mentioned occasionally by his disciples and relatives, and his one surviving work was published in the twentieth century from a modern manuscript copy. Never- theless, the little that we do know about him makes it clear that he was an original thinker, a pioneering exegete of the Jewish prayerbook and a major influence on his disciple, Rabbi Menaḥem Meiri. The present study will re-examine the historical information about his life and will point to a manu- script source for his work that has been hitherto overlooked.
Rabbi Menaḥem Meiri described his revered teacher with the following words:6 [T]he great rabbi, of whom I am today as the smallest of his fingers and the leftovers of his handiworks, the consummate sage, my lord and Rabbi, Sinai and uprooter of mountains,7 Rabbi Reuben son of the venerable and exalted Rabbi Ḥayyim. [He] was greatly familiar with the entire Talmud, and wise in all types of knowledge. Through the strength of his intellect he invented many new interpretations of the Talmud, for his speculative cunning “leaps upon the mountains, skips upon the hills” (Sg 2:8).
Rabbi Reuben’s nephew, Levi ben Abraham ben Ḥayyim, was a rationalist who devoted his time to the popularization of scientific and philosophical knowledge among the Jewish communities of Languedoc. He wrote an
rabbis are discussed in detail in my dissertation: Later Provençal Sages — Jewish Law (Halakhah) and Rabbis in Southern France, 1215-1348 (Hebrew), Ph.D. diss., Hebrew Uni- versity of Jerusalem, 2012. 5. Rabbi Reuben was probably born near the beginning of the thirteenth century, early enough to have studied under Rabbi Isaac ha-Kohen, a disciple of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières (d. 1198) who lived at the turn of the century (TWERSKY, Rabad of Posquières, p. 244-245). Reuben is mentioned as having already died in Levi ben Abraham’s Liwyat Ḥen, which was composed between 1276 and 1295, and in Meiri’s History of the Oral Law, com- posed in 1300. Most of the references to Rabbi Reuben were collected and discussed by E. HURVITZ, Sefer ha-Menuḥah: A Commentary on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides by R. Manoaḥ of Narbonne (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1970, introduction, p. 24-28. For earlier accounts of Rabbi Reuben’s life, see A. GEIGER, “Ma’amar ‘al Rabbi Levi bar Avraham bar Ḥayyim u-Qeṣat Beney Doro” [Article about Rabbi Levi bar Avraham bar Ḥayyim and Some of his Contemporaries], in S. POZNANSKI (ed.), Gesammelte Abhandlungen in hebräischer Sprache, Warsaw, 1910, p. 254-285 (esp. p. 256); RENAN and NEUBAUER, Les rabbins, p. 629- 630; H. Gross, Gallia Judaica: Dictionnaire géographique de la France d’après les sources rabbiniques, Paris, 1897, p. 200, 421. Renan and Neubauer included Rabbi Reuben among the sages of Narbonne — E. RENAN, A. NEUBAUER, Les écrivains juifs français du quatorzième siècle, Paris, 1893, p. 468, 687. Gross concurred, but they seem to have assumed that Rabbi Reuben was active there only because his teacher Rabbi Isaac ha-Kohen lived there. 6. MENAḤEM HA-MEIRI, History of the Oral Law and of Early Rabbinic Scholarship (Hebrew), ed. S. Z. HAVLIN, Jerusalem, 2006, p. 138-139. This account is dated explicitly to 1300 (p. 143). 7. Cf. BT Berakhot 64a.
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enormous encyclopedia titled Liwyat Ḥen, which included biblical inter- pretations by his distinguished uncle Rabbi Reuben.8 Menaḥem ha-Meiri considered himself a disciple of Rabbi Reuben, and mentioned him multiple times in his various writings.9 Another Talmudist who acknowledged Rabbi Reuben as his master was Rabbi Manoaḥ, who composed a commentary on parts of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah.10 A reference to “my teacher Rabbi Reuben bar Isaac bar Abraham” appears in a fragmentary composition found in the Cairo Genizah.11 Due to the poor condition of the Genizah fragment, it is difficult to ascertain what kind of composition it is, and in what context Rabbi Reuben’s words were cited, but their meaning is clear. While other biblical commentators explained the verse “Let Reuben live and not die and may his dead be few” (Deuteronomy 33, 6) so that it emerged that the men of Reuben would not die, Rabbi Reuben took a more pragmatic approach. It was only natural, and even inevitable, that in the conquest of Canaan some Israelites would fall in battle. The blessing to the tribe of Reuben was that, in joining the other tribes in this campaign, their casualties would be limited, and only a minimal number of soldiers would die. Possible evidence of Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim as a master teaching in an academy can be found in a responsum by Rabbi Judah ben Nathan Ha-Navi (the Prophet). Rabbi Judah, whose moniker is probably the Hebrew equiva- lent of the Jewish vernacular name Profiat, penned several responsa which were included in Teshuvot Ḥakhmey Provinṣiah, a collection of responsa
8. LEVI BEN AVRAHAM, Livyat Ḥen: Book Six Part Three — The Work of Creation (Hebrew), ed. H. KREISEL, Jerusalem, 2004, p. 241-242, 398. Besides his literary work, Levi also delivered sermons in synagogues expounding allegorical interpretations of the Bible. His activities aroused the ire of Rabbi Abba Mari ben Moses, who felt that they undermined the belief and practice of ordinary Jews who lacked the sophistication to digest these philosophical sermons properly. Abba Mari initiated a multi-pronged campaign against Levi specifically and his ilk of rational philosophers more generally. In the course of this campaign, Levi’s cousin and Rabbi Reuben’s son, Samuel, came to his relative’s defense (Minḥat Qena’ot, chapter 60, in Teshuvot ha-Rashba, ed. H. Z. DIMITROWSKY, Jerusalem, 1990, p. 524-577). 9. R. MENAḤEM BEN SOLOMON MEIRI, Book of Repentance (Hebrew), ed. A. SCHREIBER, New York, 1950, p. 295, 390, 636. See also the quote above from his History of the Oral Law. The teacher mentioned by ha-Meiri in his polemical letter to Joseph ben Simeon is probably -des Simeon ben Josef”, in Jubelschrift zum Neun חשן משפט“ ,Rabbi Reuben (D. KAUFMANN zigsten Geburtstag des Dr. L. Zunz, Berlin, 1994, Hebrew section, p. 162). For similarities between the positions of Rabbi Reuben and Rabbi Menaḥem Meiri, see STERN, Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture, p. 104, n. 111; p. 106, n. 131. 10. Sefer ha-Menuḥah, Laws of blessing 10, 2 (ed. HURVITZ, p. 375). 11. Ms. Cambridge T-S F 5.90, fol. 2v, first noted by E. HURVITZ, “Commentary on Hilchoth Tefillin of Maimonides by Rabbeinu Manoach of Narbonne” (Hebrew), Hadorom 40 (1975), p. 60, n. 15.
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from medieval Provence and Languedoc.12 In the course of a debate with an unnamed correspondent regarding the laws of indirect damages, Rabbi Judah wrote:13 You should have visited the academy of the great and virtuous sage, Rabbi Reuben — may the Merciful One protect him! — [and seen] the questions that I asked him, which he answered kindly, bravely and modestly, as if he were my friend or my equal. Then you would have understood the great difference between the modesty of venerable rabbis and youngsters who have just begun their studies.
Unless Rabbi Judah Profiat was referring to another Rabbi Reuben, this passage would indicate that Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim was the head of a Talmudic academy.14 Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim may have written a Talmudic commentary. Azaria de Rossi referred to a commentary on Talmudic stories (Aggadah), alongside the well-known Aggadah commentary by Rabbi Solomon ibn Adret: The passage about the reprimand of the moon (BT Ḥullin 60b) … was also mentioned by some of the later authorities, specifically in the commentaries of Rashba’ of blessed memory and Rabbi Reuben bar Ḥayyim ṢBY15…16
Aggadah commentaries were a genre that enjoyed a fair amount of popu- larity in thirteenth century Southern France, and it is perfectly feasible that Rabbi Reuben made his own contribution to this field.17 Indeed, the use of
12. A. SCHREIBER (ed.), Responsae (!) of the Sages of Provence, Jerusalem, 1967, Even ha-‘Ezer § 56, 70, 71. I believe that “ha-navi” (the prophet) functions here as a surname, corresponding to the popular Jewish name Profiat. On the medieval title “the prophet”, see M. Ṣ. WEISS, “Ha-NaBY’” [About the Acronym Ha-NaBY’], Hazofeh — Quartalis Hebraica 5 (1921), p. 46-47; L. ZUNZ, Zur Geschichte und Literatur, Berlin, 1845, p. 369, n. n; I. L. SZPER, “Le Surnom de ‘Prophète’”, Revue des études juives 79 (1924), p. 198. On the name Profiat, see [M.] SAENGER, “Ueber die Ausprache und Bedeutung des Namens Profeit”, Monats- schrift für die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums 4 (1855), p. 197-202; RENAN and NEUBAUER, Les rabbins français, p. 599-600. 13. Responsa of the Sages of Provence, p. 381 14. A Halakhic responsum by Rabbi Reuben ben Isaac is found in Ms. Oxford 2343 and was published by S. E. STERN, “Keley Yeyn Nesekh” [Gentile Wine Vessels], in Sefer Sha‘arey Halakhah, Haifa, 2002, p. 69-72. On Reuben ben Isaac the poet, see RENAN and NEUBAUER, Les rabbins français, p. 725-726; L. ZUNZ, Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie, Berlin, 1865, p. 498; S. EINBINDER, No Place of Rest: Jewish Literature, Expulsion, and the Memory of Medieval France, Philadelphia, 2009, p. 72-85. For the possibility that Reuben ben Isaac the poet and Reuben ben Isaac the rabbi are one and the same, see ZUNZ, Literaturgeschichte; EINBINDER, No Place of Rest, p. 183, n. 2. 15. Probably an abbreviation of ṣa‘ir be-alfey Yisrael, “the youngest of thousands in Israel”. 16. AZARIAH DE ROSSI, The Light of the Eyes, trans. J. WEINBERG, New Haven, 2001, p. 496-497. 17. On Aggadah commentaries in Southern France, see M. SAPERSTEIN, Decoding the Rabbis: A Thirteenth-Century Commentary on the Aggadah, Cambridge (MA), 1980; ID., “Selected
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the abbreviation ṢBY after Rabbi Reuben’s name in this passage echoes its appearance after his name on the frontispiece of Ms. Sassoon (see below), providing an additional degree of authenticity to de Rossi’s reference. How- ever, I am not aware of any other evidence of such a work by Rabbi Reuben18. One comment by Rabbi Reuben on a passage by Rav Nissim Gaon is found in Ms. Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Gaster Collection 931.19 This manuscript contains a collection of responsa from the Babylonian Geonim and their contemporaries, who were active in the ninth to the eleventh centuries. The manuscript itself was copied in Sefardic script in the sixteenth century, but the section containing Geonic material was probably redacted in medieval Languedoc.20 One responsum bears the title “By the sage, Rabbi Reuben bar Ḥayyim of blessed memory”.21 What follows, however, is not a responsum by Rabbi Reuben, but rather a passage from Megillat Setarim, a talmudic work by Nissim Gaon of Kairouan.22 Rabbi Reuben evidently wrote a marginal comment on this passage, and a later scribe incorporated it into the text and used it as the basis for a title to the passage as a whole.23
Passages from Yedaiah Bedersi’s Commentary on the Midrashim”, in I. TWERSKY (ed.), Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature: Volume II, Cambridge (MA), 1984, p. 423-440; H. KREISEL, C. SIRAT, A. ISRAEL (eds.), The Writings of R. Moshe Ibn Tibbon (Hebrew), Be’er Sheva, 2010. 18. Two interpretations of Talmudic aggadot by Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim appear in the section of Levi ben Abraham’s Liwyat Ḥen that is devoted to aggadic interpretations. Levi ben Avraham, Livyat Hen: The Secrets of the Faith; The Gate of the Haggadah (Hebrew), ed. H. Kreisel, Beer Sheva, 2014, p. 290, 315. These citations strengthen the likelihood that Rabbi Reuben composed a commentary on Talmudic aggadot, as suggested by Azariah de Rossi’s citation. 19. This passage was first (partially) published by I. M. ḤAZZAN, Sefer Teshuvot ha-Ge’onim ‘im Haggahot Iyyey ha-Yam, Livorno, 1869, fol. 8r. It was transcribed in full by HURVITZ, Sefer ha-Menuḥah, p. 26, n. 133. On the manuscripts of Geonic responsa which Hazan pos- sessed or had access to, see J. FAUR, Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Ḥazzan: The Man and his Works (Hebrew), Haifa [on the Hebrew title-page: Jerusalem], 1978, p. 52-53. 20. J. TABORY, “Sources of the Geonic Responsa Collection Sha‘arei-Teshuvah” (Hebrew), Alei Sefer 3 (1976), p. 8-11; N. DANZIG, “Geonic Responsa Sha‘arei Teshuvah and She’elot u-Teshuvot min ha-Shamayim” (Hebrew), Tarbiz 58 (1988), p. 38. 21. Ms. Manchester, fol. 274r-v. 22. The passage is included in a Genizah fragment of Megillat Setarim first identified and published by S. ASAF, “Sefer Megillat Setarim le-Rav Nisim bar Ya‘aqov mi-Qairuan” [The Book Megillat Setarim by Rav Nissim bar Jacob of Kairouan], Tarbiz 12 (1941), p. 28-50. A longer version was published from a different manuscript by S. ABRAMSON, Rav Nisim Gaon: Ḥamishah Sefarim, Jerusalem, 1965, p. 290-291. However, it appears as a responsum with an attribution to Rav Hayye Gaon in Sha‘arey Teshuvah, Salonika, 1802, no. 15. This erroneous attribution is noted by T. GRONER, A List of Hai Gaon’s Responsa (Hebrew), Alei Sefer 13 (1986), p. 111. 23. ḤAZZAN, Iyyey ha-Yam, fol. 58v-59r, suggested that Rabbi Reuben was the redactor of this entire collection of Geonic responsa.
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לחכם ר׳ ראובן בר חיים ז״ל. בפרק ד׳ דמכות מלקות של תורה ארבעים חסר אחת מכת מרדות אינו כן אלא מכין אותו עד שתצא נפשו. ובמסכת נזיר דבני מערבא מכת מרדות ארבעים חסר אחת אומדי׳ אותו אם יש בו כח מלקין אותו ואם לאו אין מלקין אותו. פי׳ אם יש בו כח לקבל המלקות מכין אותו מכת מרדות חובטין עליו עד שיקבל עליו שמונים מלקיות או עד שתצא נפשו אלמא דלמכת מרדות אין לה קצבה ולא מנין. כך פרשו הגאונים ז״ל. ולי אני ראובן נראה לי לתת קצת טעם לזה דמאחר שלא נתנו חכמים שיעור למכת באו הגאונים ותקנו שיעור לדבריהם שכדאי הם הגאונים לתת שיעור לדבריהם של חכמי התלמוד. ותקנו י״ג מכות שהרי אין האדם חייב במצות עד י״ג שנה כדאמרי׳ בן י״ג למצות. מכת מרדות פי׳ מכת מוסר ותרגו׳ ליסרה אתכם למירדי יתכון ואמ׳ רבותי׳ טובה מרדות בלבו של אדם יותר מכמה מלקיות. כפי׳ רבי׳ האיי ז״ל. By the sage, Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim. In the fourth chapter of [Tosefta] Makkot [it is written]: “Lashes mandated by biblical law are 39 [in number]. Mardut lashes are different — they continue lashing him until his soul departs.”24 And in Tractate Nazir of the Westerners: “{Biblical}25 lashes — 39. They appraise him. If he has the strength, they lash him. If not, they don’t lash him.” 26Meaning: if he has the strength to survive the lashes, they lash him. “Mardut lashes — they lash him until he receives 80 lashes or until his soul departs.” It emerges that mardut lashes have no limit or number. Thus explained the Geonim. It appears to me, Reuben, to explain that since the Sages did not set a number for lashes, the Geonim did so, since the Geonim were the ones worthy of setting measures for the words of the Sages. They ordained thirteen lashes, since a person is not obligated in the commandments until the age of thirteen, as it says “Thirteen — for commandments”.27 Mardut lashes — meaning disciplinary lashes. I will chastise you (Leviticus 26, 18) is translated [by Onkelos], le-mirdey yatkhon. And the Sages said “Better is one mardut in the heart of a man than many lashes”.28 This is what Rav Hayye explained.
Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim is best known for his work Sefer ha-Tamid. Several citations from this work are found in Rabbi Aaron ha-Kohen’s Orḥot Ḥayyim, and they provided the basis for this identification.29 But no manuscript
24. Tosefta Makkot 4, 17 (ed. M. S. ZUCKERMANDEL, Jerusalem, 2nd ed., 1938, p. 443). 25. The manuscript reads mardut, but this is clearly a mistake, since this statement stands in contrast to the law regarding the rabbinic punishment of mardut lashes. 26. PT Nazir 4, fol. 53a-b; Talmud Yerushalmi According to Ms. Or. 4720 Scal. 3 of the Leiden University Library with Restorations and Corrections, introduction by Y. SUSSMANN, Jerusalem, 2001, p. 1108. 27. M Avot 5, 21. As noted by S. LIEBERMAN (Tosefeth Rishonim, part II, Jerusalem, 1938, p. 171), a similar explanation was given by Rabbi Israel Isserlein (fifteenth century, Austria). 28. BT Berakhot 7a. 29. RABBI AARON HA-KOHEN, Orḥot Ḥayyim, Florence, 1750, laws of prayer, §51; ibid., laws of blessings, § 68; RABBI AARON HA-KOHEN, Orḥot Ḥayyim: ‘Inyeney Shabbat, ed. S. KLEIN, Y. K LEIN, Merkaz Shapira, 1996, p. 309 (and introduction, p. 63-65). The first two citations were noted by H. J. D. AZULAI, Shem ha-Gedolim, Livorno, 1774, fol. 82v, s.v. Sefer ha-Tamid.
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of the work was known to exist until Rabbi Jacob Moses Toledano pub- lished a text titled Sefer ha-Tamid in 1935.30 The basis for his edition was a nineteenth century manuscript that he found in his ancestral home of Meknes.31 The beginning of the manuscript is lacking, and it does not contain any explicit title. However, Toledano identified it as Sefer ha-Tamid on the basis of citations from that source in a manuscript work by his own grand- father, Rabbi Judah Toledano.32 One of the citations from Sefer ha-Tamid in Sefer Orḥot Ḥayyim confirms this identification.33 Several years before Toledano published his edition, David Sassoon pub- lished a richly descriptive catalogue of his manuscript collection. He noted that Ms. Sassoon 921 contains citations from Sefer ha-Tamid, and Toledano mentioned this fact in the introduction to his edition.34 But Toledano did not have access to the Sassoon manuscript, and it would appear that no one has since compared it to Toledano’s edition. Ms. Sassoon 921 is a col- lection of exegetical comments on the prayers for the Sabbath and Jewish festivals. The comments are drawn from a range of sources, many of them
30. Sefer ha-Tamid, ed. J. M. TOLEDANO, Humenné, 1935. On the fate of this edition during the Second World War, see J. M. TOLEDANO, Oṣar Genazim, Jerusalem, 1960, p. 208. 31. Today, the manuscript is housed in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, with the call number Rab. 1272. 32. TOLEDANO, Sefer ha-Tamid, introduction, p. III. The writings of Rabbi Judah Toledano have not been published. The passage which Jacob Toledano used to identify Sefer ha-Tamid is found in Judah TOLEDANO, Sefer Nora’ Tehillot (a commentary on the Passover Haggadah), ביאור הלל הגדול מס׳ התמיד להרב ר׳ :(ms. Jerusalem, Mosad ha-Rav Kook 199 (unpaginated and in a second ,ראובן ן׳ חיים ז״ל כ״י נושן. הודו לה׳ זה יאמר לבית ישראל ולבית אהרן וליראי ה׳ .ביאור נשמת כל חי וביאור ואלו פינו מס׳ התמיד להרב ר׳ ראובן אבן חיים ז״ל מועתק מס׳ כ״י ישן :passage This manuscript is described by N. BEN-MENAḤEM, “Description of Twenty Mss. (from the Mossad ha-Rav Kook Collection)” (Hebrew), Aresheth 2 (1960), p. 393-397. Another pas- sage (published by Jacob Toledano in Sefer ha-Tamid, p. 2) is found in Judah Toledano’s commentary on Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, ‘Aṭeret Paz, ms. Jerusalem, Mosad ha-Rav Kook 1244, §270. On Rabbi Judah Toledano, see “R. Yehudah Toledano - Petaḥ Ṭov la-‘Ovrim we-Shavim” [R. Judah Toledano — A Good Opening for Passersby], Meqabeṣi’el 28 (2000), p. 51-57. 33. Orḥot Ḥayyim — ‘Inyeney Shabbat, p. 309. The attribution to Sefer ha-Tamid is not found in the Florence 1750 printing of Orḥot Ḥayyim, and it was added in the 1996 edition based on ms. New York, JTS Rab. 666. 34. Ohel Dawid — Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, 1932, p. 896. Sassoon apparently acquired the manuscript at auction in 1926. See: Catalogue of an Important Library of Hebraica Formed on the Continent and in North Africa… Sotheby & co., London, 1926, p. 5, lot 36 (Toledano was aware of this catalogue — Sefer ha-Tamid, introduction, p. II, n. 7). For additional descriptions of the Sassoon manuscript, see G. SCHOLEM, “Review” (Hebrew), Kiryat Sefer 10 (1933), p. 170- 171; R. ELIOR, “The Kabbalists of Dr‘aa” (Hebrew), Pe‘amim 24 (1985), p. 54-57; Y. GARB, “Magic and Mysticism: Between North Africa and Eretz Israel” (Hebrew), Pe‘amim 85 (2000), p. 126-128; M. HALLAMISH, The Kabbalah in North Africa: A Historical and Cultural Survey (Hebrew), Tel Aviv, 2001, p. 142.
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Kabbalistic. Some of these sources are mentioned on the cover page of the manuscript, which was added to the volume long after its actual date of production:35 This is a proclamation explaining that this book is by one of the ancient Kab- balists of Dar’a… collecting bits from here and there, from Sefer Orḥot Ḥayyim by Rabbi Aaron ha-Kohen Astruc and Sefer ha-Tamid by Rabbi Reuben ben Ḥayyim ṢBY… Samuel ha-Levi ibn Yuli.
The Sassoon manuscript contains at least one passage from Sefer ha- Tamid that is not found in Toledano’s edition:36 פירוש ויכלו מספר תמיד. ויכלו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם: כל מה שנכלל עם השמים וכל מה שנכלל עם הארץ. ודוד פירש זה כשאמר 'הללו את יי מן השמים׳ ואמר 'הללו את יי מן הארץ׳. ויכל אלהים ביום השביעי: המלאכה נשלמה בסוף הששי בצמצום, מה שאי אפשר לצמצם ולא היה שום שיעור בין הפסק במלאכה ויום השביעי. וישבות: נאמר זה על דרך ההשאלה, ופירושו דמאחר שהשלים המלאכה ביום הששי לא הוצרך עוד לחדש דבר ולסייע במלאכות כי היא נחשבת מאליה על ידי הטבע שהניח לה אמנם הכל [...] מציאותו ופירוש וישבות ויפסוק עכ״ל ז״ל. An explanation of way-yekhulu from Sefer ha-Tamid. The heaven and the earth were finished (way-yekhulu) and all their array (Genesis 2:1): Everything that was included (nikhlal) with the heaven and everything that was included with the earth. David explained this when he said Praise the Lord from the heavens (Psalms 148:1) and Praise the Lord, O you who are on the earth (Psalms 148:7). On the seventh day God finished (Genesis 2:2): The work was finished at the very end of the sixth [day], more precisely than is [humanly] possible, and there was no lapse between the end of the work and the seventh day. And He ceased (Genesis 22:2): this was said metaphorically, meaning that after He completed the work on the sixth day, He did not need to innovate anything or to assist with the work because it is thought on its own by the nature that He gave it. But everything […} His existence. And He ceased (way-yishbot) means He stopped. Until here are his words, his memory is a blessing.
Though this passage is not found in Toledano’s edition, nor in the nineteenth century manuscript which served as the basis for his edition, it is found on a scrap of paper attached to that manuscript. The first passage in Toledano’s edition is not found in the Sassoon manuscript, which today is missing the first several pages. A careful comparison of the passages in Ms. Sassoon with the contents of Toledano’s edition reveals that every other passage in Ms. Sassoon marked as coming from Sefer ha-Tamid can be found in the
35. Ms. Sassoon, p. 1. 36. Ms. Sassoon 921, p. 7.
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printed edition.37 The two sources also correspond in their lacunae — when Toledano’s manuscript reads “I found no more”, Ms. Sassoon leaves an empty space. In one instance, the Sassoon manuscript itself records a lacuna, and the note is reproduced verbatim in Toledano’s manuscript.38 This comparison suggests very strongly that Ms. Sassoon is the very manuscript from which the Toledano manuscript was copied. A later copyist transcribed only those passages which he believed were from Sefer ha-Tamid, using his own sense of the author’s style to identify passage that were unmarked in Ms. Sassoon, and thus reconstructed Sefer ha-Tamid as an inde- pendent work.39 This reconstruction was probably performed by Samuel ibn Yuli, whose name appears in the (late) frontispiece of Ms. Sassoon and in a scribal note in Ms. New York.40 On the basis of the passages copied in Ms. Sassoon, we can conclude that Sefer ha-Tamid is a commentary on the prayer-book. Though the surviving sections deal only with the prayers for the Sabbath and rosh-ḥodesh, internal references make it clear that it originally encompassed the weekday prayers as well.41 The commentary is literal and rationalistic.42 It reflects Rabbi Reuben’s profound debt to Maimonides, in the realm of philosophy and in the text of the liturgy, though he was cognizant of the fact that Maimonides’ version of the prayers differed from that of the Southern French commu- nities.43 The aim of the commentary was to provide contextual explanations for the prayers, as Rabbi Reuben wrote:44
37. Ed. Toledano, p. 2-6 (missing from Sassoon manuscript); p. 6-18 (ms., p. 77-93); p. 18-25 (ms., p. 96-106); p. 25-28 (ms., p. 130-134); p. 28-31 (ms., p. 168-171); p. 32-33 (the Sassoon ms. is missing a page at this point, after p. 182); p. 33-38 (ms., p. 283-291); p. 38 (ms., p. 357-358). 38. P. 11: “This commentator skipped this [Psalm] and did not explain it, and I don’t know why he skipped it”. 39. The passages he copied out which do not bear the title Sefer ha-Tamid explicitly in Ms. Sassoon are on p. 5-6 (ms., p. 3-4); p. 31-32 (ms., p. 172-173). 40. Samuel ibn Yuli’s name appears in a scribal comment in Ms. New York, JTS Rab. 1272 (Sefer ha-Tamid, p. 29). However, comparison of the ms. Sassoon frontispiece with the handwriting in ms. New York makes it clear that the JTS manuscript was copied from ibn Yuli’s transcription. On ibn Yuli’s identity, see ELIOR, “The Kabbalists of Dr‘aa”, p. 54, n. 52. 41. “As we explained in the commentary to the Eighteen Blessings” (Sefer ha-Tamid, p. 6); “I explained the Yoṣer blessing but there are additions for the Sabbath” (ibid., p. 31); “‘You are One’ [from the Sabbath afternoon prayer] — we have already written elsewhere about the unity of God” (ibid., p. 33). 42. HALBERTAL, Between Torah and Wisdom, p. 133-140. 43. E.g.: “I found none of this addition in the book of Rabbi Moses” (Sefer ha-Tamid, p. 32). 44. Sefer ha-Tamid, p. 14.
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כמה פירשו המפרשים ולא ראיתי לאחד מהם שיקשור הפסוקים יפה זה עם זה וגם שיוסיפו בו מלות שאינן נמצאות בפסוק ולא מובנות. The commentators gave many explanations, but I have not found one of them who tied the verses together properly, without adding words that are not written or implied in the verse.
The published edition of Sefer ha-Tamid contains no legal Halakhic state- ments. However, the citations from Sefer ha-Tamid in Sefer Orḥot Ḥayyim are of a prescriptive nature, raising the possibility that the work originally combined commentary and laws (along the lines of other medieval Jewish works on prayer, such as Maḥzor Vitry, Sefer ha-Maḥkim, Sefer Abudarham), but that the Halakhic sections were omitted by the compiler of Ms. Sassoon. In short, Rabbi Reuben was a well-known rabbinic figure in thirteenth century Languedoc. His main surviving literary work, Sefer ha-Tamid, is a commen- tary on the prayerbook. Though it was published from a very late manuscript, the present study has pointed to a much earlier manuscript that can serve as a more solid base for researching this important work.
Pinchas ROTH [email protected]
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