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New Light on Rabbi Reuben Ben Ḥayyim∗

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New Light on Rabbi Reuben Ben Ḥayyim∗ Pinchas ROTH BenGurionUniversityoftheNegev 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, RabadofPosquières:aTwelfth-centuryTalmudist, Philadelphia (rev. ed.), 1980; H. SOLOVEITCHIK, “Rabad of Posquieres: A Programmatic Essay”, in E. ETKES, Y. S ALMON (eds.), StudiesintheHistoryofJewishSocietyintheMiddleAgesandinthe Modern Period, Jerusalem, 1980, p. 7-40; I. TA-SHMA, Rabbi Zeraḥyah ha-Levi Ba‘al ha-Ma’oru-BeneyḤugo [Rabbi Zeraḥiah ha-Levi, Author of Ha-Ma’or and the Members of his Circle], Jerusalem, 1992; C. FRAENKEL, FromMaimonidestoSamuelibnTibbon:The TransformationoftheDalâlatalHâ’irînintotheMorehha-Nevukhim(Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2007. 2. G. BLIDSTEIN, “R. Menaḥem Ha-Me’iri: Aspects of an Intellectual Profile”, Journal ofJewishThoughtandPhilosophy 5 (1995), p. 63-79; M. HALBERTAL, BetweenTorahand Wisdom:RabbiMenachemha-MeiriandtheMaimonideanHalakhistsinProvence (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2000; C. TOUATI, “Menaḥem ha-Méiri: Commentateur de la Aggada”, Revuedes étudesjuives 166 (2007), p. 543-549; Y. ELMAN, “Meiri and the Non-Jew: A Comparative Investigation”, in E. CARLEBACH, J. J. SCHACTER (eds.), NewPerspectivesonJewish-Christian RelationsinHonorofDavidBerger, Leiden, 2012, p. 265-296. 3. D. J. SILVER, MaimonideanCriticismandtheMaimonideanControversy1180-1240, Leiden, 1965; B. SEPTIMUS, Hispano-JewishCultureinTransition:TheCareerandContro- versiesofRamah, Cambridge (MA), 1982, p. 61-74; E. KLEIN, Jews,ChristianSociety,and RoyalPowerinMedievalBarcelona, Ann Arbor, 2006, p. 118-120; G. STERN, Philosophyand RabbinicCulture:JewishInterpretationandControversyinMedievalLanguedoc, London, 2009. 4. For many of them, the standard reference remains E. RENAN, A. NEUBAUER, Lesrabbins françaisducommencementduquatorzièmesiècle, Paris, 1877, p. 431-734. Fifteen of these Revuedesétudesjuives,173(3-4),juillet-décembre2014,pp.371-380. doi:10.2143/REJ.173.3.3062107 997567.indb7567.indb 337171 228/01/158/01/15 110:090:09 372 NEWLIGHTONRABBIREUBENBENḤAYYIM 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: LaterProvençalSages—JewishLaw (Halakhah)andRabbisinSouthernFrance,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, RabadofPosquières, p. 244-245). Reuben is mentioned as having already died in Levi ben Abraham’s LiwyatḤen, which was composed between 1276 and 1295, and in Meiri’s HistoryoftheOralLaw, 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.), GesammelteAbhandlungeninhebräischer Sprache, Warsaw, 1910, p. 254-285 (esp. p. 256); RENAN and NEUBAUER, Lesrabbins, p. 629- 630; H. Gross, GalliaJudaica:DictionnairegéographiquedelaFranced’aprèslessources rabbiniques, Paris, 1897, p. 200, 421. Renan and Neubauer included Rabbi Reuben among the sages of Narbonne — E. RENAN, A. NEUBAUER, Lesécrivainsjuifsfrançaisduquatorzième 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. 997567.indb7567.indb 337272 228/01/158/01/15 110:090:09 NEWLIGHTONRABBIREUBENBENḤAYYIM 373 enormous encyclopedia titled LiwyatḤen, 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’ MishnehTorah.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 andmayhisdeadbefew” (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 TeshuvotḤakhmeyProvinṣiah, 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 (MinḥatQena’ot, chapter 60, in Teshuvotha-Rashba, ed. H. Z. DIMITROWSKY, Jerusalem, 1990, p. 524-577). 9. R. MENAḤEM BEN SOLOMON MEIRI, BookofRepentance (Hebrew), ed. A. SCHREIBER, New York, 1950, p. 295, 390, 636. See also the quote above from his HistoryoftheOralLaw. The teacher mentioned by ha-Meiri in his polemical letter to Joseph ben Simeon is probably -des Simeon ben Josef”, in JubelschriftzumNeun חשן משפט“ ,Rabbi Reuben (D. KAUFMANN zigstenGeburtstagdesDr.L.Zunz, Berlin, 1994, Hebrew section, p. 162). For similarities between the positions of Rabbi Reuben and Rabbi Menaḥem Meiri, see STERN, Philosophyand RabbinicCulture, p. 104, n. 111; p. 106, n. 131. 10. Seferha-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. 997567.indb7567.indb 337373 228/01/158/01/15 110:090:09 374 NEWLIGHTONRABBIREUBENBENḤAYYIM from medieval Provence and Languedoc.12 In the course of a debate with an unnamed correspondent regarding the laws of indirect
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