Isaac ben Judah ibn Ghayyat[a] (1030/1038–1089), commonly mispronounced ibn Ghiyyat, was a rabbi, Biblical commentator, codifier of Jewish law, philosopher, and liturgical poet from al-Andalus. He was born and lived in the town of Lucena in the Taifa of Granada, where he headed a rabbinic academy. He died in Cordoba.
Etymology of name
editAs many Sephardic surnames, ibn Ghayyat is a nasab (patronymic), "the son of Ghayyāth." Ghayyāth means "savior" in Arabic. The name is commonly confused with ghiyath meaning "salvation", found in Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation of Hebrew: יֵשַׁע, romanized: yēšaʿ, lit. 'salvation' in Psalm 20:7, "Now I know that YHWH will give victory to His anointed, will answer him from His heavenly sanctuary with the might of salvation in His right arm (בג'ברואת גיאת' ימינה)."[3]
Background
editAccording to some authorities, he was the teacher of Isaac Alfasi; according to others, his fellow pupil. His best-known students were his son Judah ibn Ghayyat, Joseph ibn Sahl, and Moses ibn Ezra. He was held in great esteem by Samuel ibn Naghrillah and his son Joseph, and after the latter died in the 1066 Granada massacre, ibn Ghayyat was elected to succeed him as rabbi of Lucena, where he officiated until his death.
He was the author of a compendium of ritual laws concerning the festivals, published by Seligman Baer Bamberger under the title of Sha'arei Simḥah (Fürth, 1862; the laws concerning Passover were republished by Bernhard Zomber under the title Hilkhot Pesaḥim, Berlin, 1864), and a philosophical commentary on Ecclesiastes, known only through quotations in the works of later authors.[4]
Ibn Ghayyat's greatest activity was in liturgical poetry; he was an author of hundreds of piyyutim, and his hymns are found in the Maḥzor of Tripoli under the title of Siftei Renanot. Most are written in the new Andalusi style. He achieved special distinction in his melodious muwashshaḥat "girdle poems", a secular Arabic form first used as a vehicle for liturgical poetry by Solomon ibn Gabirol.[5]
One of his major contributions was his collection and arrangement of the geonic responsa, which had hitherto been scattered among the world's Jewry.[6]
References
edit- ^ Steinschneider, Moritz (1860). Catalogus librorum hebraeorum in bibliotheca Bodleiana (in Latin). typis A. Friedlaender. pp. 1110–1111.
- ^ Steinschneider, Moritz (1901). An Introduction to the Arabic Literature of the Jews. pp. 515–516.
- ^ קאפח, יוסף (1966). תהלים: עם תרגום ופירוש הגאון סעדיה בן יוסף פיומי וחלק הדקדוק למהרי״ץ (in Hebrew). קרן הרב יהודה ליב ומנוחה חנה אפשטיין שע"י האקדימיה האמריקאנית למדעי היהדות.
- ^ Dukes, in Orient, Lit. x. 667-668
- ^ Carmi, T. (1981). The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (in Hebrew and English). Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-14-042197-2. OCLC 1001055265.
- ^ Pirush Shishah Sidrei Mishnah (A Commentary on the Six Orders of the Mishnah), ed. Mordechai Yehudah Leib Sachs, p. 11, appended at the end of the book: The Six Orders of the Mishnah: with the Commentaries of the Rishonim, vol. 1, pub. El ha-Meqorot: Jerusalem 1955 (Hebrew); Alfasi, Y. (1960). Yosef Qafih (ed.). R. Yitzhak al-Fasi's Commentary on Tractate Hullin (Chapter Kol ha-Basar) (in Hebrew). ha-Agudah le-Hatzalat Ginzei Teiman. p. 8 (Introduction). OCLC 745065428.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gotthard Deutsch; M. Seligsohn (1901–1906). "Isaac ben Judah ibn Ghiyyat". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
External links
edit- Sha'arei Simḥah: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
- Hilkhot Pesaḥim
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