Yonah Gerondi
Encyclopedia
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
rabbi and moralist, cousin of Nahmanides
Nahmanides
Nahmanides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman Girondi, Bonastruc ça Porta and by his acronym Ramban, , was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.-Name:"Nahmanides" is a Greek-influenced formation meaning "son of Naḥman"...
. He is most famous for his ethical work The Gates of Repentance .
Biography
Yonah Gerondi came from GironaGirona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
, in Catalonia. Gerondi was the most prominent pupil of Solomon of Montpellier, the leader of the opponents of Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
' philosophical works, and was one of the signers of the ban proclaimed in 1233 against the Moreh Nebukim and the Sefer ha-Madda. According to his pupil, Hillel of Verona
Hillel of Verona
Hillel ben Samuel was an Italian physician, philosopher, and Talmudist. He was the grandson of the Talmudic scholar Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona.-Life:...
, Gerondi was the instigator of the public burning of Maimonides' writings by order of the authorities at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1233, and the indignation which this aroused among all classes of Jews was mainly directed against him. Subsequently (not forty days afterward, as a tradition has it, but in 1242; see note 5 to H. Grätz, Geschichte, vol. vii.), when twenty-four wagon-loads of Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
s were burned at the same place where the philosophical writings of Maimonides had been destroyed, Gerondi saw the folly and danger of appealing to Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
ecclesiastical authorities on questions of Jewish doctrine, and publicly admitted in the synagogue of Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
that he had been wrong in all his acts against the works and fame of Maimonides.
As an act of repentance he vowed to travel to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and prostrate himself on Maimonides' grave and implore his pardon in the presence of ten men for seven consecutive days. He left France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
with that intention, but was detained, first in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and later in Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
. He remained in Toledo, and became one of the great Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ical teachers of his time. In all his lectures he made a point of quoting from Maimonides, always mentioning his name with great reverence. Gerondi's sudden death from a rare disease was considered by many as a penalty for not having carried out the plan of his journey to the grave of Maimonides. He died in Toledo, Spain, in November 1263.
Works
Gerondi left many works, of which only a few have been preserved. The Hiddushim to Alfasi on Berakot which are ascribed to "Rabbenu Yonah" were in reality written in Gerondi's name by one, if not several, of his pupils. The Ḥiddushim originally covered the entire work of Alfasi, but only the portion mentioned has been preserved. Gerondi wrote novellæ on the TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, which are often mentioned in the responsa and decisions of his pupil Solomon Aderet and of other great rabbis, and some of which are incorporated in the Shiṭṭah Mekubbeẓet of R. Bezalel Ashkenazi
Bezalel Ashkenazi
Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi was a rabbi and talmudist who lived in Ottoman Palestine during the 16th century. He is best known as the author of Shittah Mekubetzet, a commentary on the Talmud. He is very straightforward in his writings and occasionally offers textual amendments to the Talmud...
. Azulai
Chaim Joseph David Azulai
Chaim Joseph David Azulai ben Isaac Zerachia , commonly known as the Chida , was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious writings.- Biography :Azulai was born in Jerusalem, where he received his education...
had in his possession Gerondi's novellæ on the tractates Baba Batra and Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...
, in manuscript (Shem ha-Gedolim, p. 75, vilna, 1852). His novellæ on the first-named tractate have since been published under the name Aliyot de-Rabbenu Yonah while those on the last-named tractate form part of the collection of commentaries on the Talmud by ancient authors published by Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi under the title Sam Ḥayyim (Livorno, 1806; see Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 422). His commentary on Pirke Avot was first published by Simḥah Dolitzki of Byelostok (Berlin and Altona, 1848) and was translated into English for the first time by Rabbi David Sedley of TorahLab. The work Issur ve-Heter is wrongly attributed to Gerondi. A commentary by him on Proverbs
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs , commonly referred to simply as Proverbs, is a book of the Hebrew Bible.The original Hebrew title of the book of Proverbs is "Míshlê Shlomoh" . When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different forms. In the Greek Septuagint the title became "paroimai paroimiae"...
, which is very highly praised (see Bahya ben Asher
Bahya ben Asher
Bahye ben Asher ibn Halawa also known as Rabbeinu Behaye was a rabbi and scholar of Judaism. He was a commentator on the Hebrew Bible and is noted for introducing Kabbalah into study of the Torah.He is considered by Jewish scholars to be one of the most distinguished of the Biblical exegetes of...
's preface to his commentary on the Pentateuch), exists in manuscript. Among other minor unpublished works known to be his are Megillat Sefarim, Hilkot Ḥanukkah and Hilkot Yom Kippur.
But the fame of Gerondi chiefly rests on his moral and ascetic works, which, it is surmised, he wrote to atone for his earlier attacks on Maimonides and to emphasize his repentance. His Iggeret ha-Teshuvah, Shaare Teshuvah, and Sefer ha-Yir'ah belong to the standard Jewish ethical works
Musar literature
Musar literature is the term used for didactic Jewish ethical literature which describes virtues and vices and the path towards perfection in a methodical way.- Definition of Musar literature :...
of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and are still popular among Orthodox Jewish preachers. The Sefer ha-Yir'ah was published as early as 1490, as an appendix to Yeshu'ah ben Joseph's Halikot 'Olam. The Shaare Teshuvah first appeared in Fano (1505) with the Sefer ha-Yirah, while the Iggeret ha-Teshuvah was first published in Cracow (1586). All have been reprinted many times, separately and together, as well as numerous extracts from them; and they have been translated into Judæo-German and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. A part of the Iggeret ha-Teshuvah (sermon 3) first appeared, under the name Dat ha-Nashim, in Solomon Alami
Solomon Alami
Solomon Alami was a Portuguese-Jewish ethical writer of the 14th and 15th centuries, contemporary of Simon ben Ẓemaḥ Duran . He is known through his ethical treatise Iggeret Musar, which he addressed, in the form of a letter, to one of his disciples in 1415.- Iggeret Musar :Alami was an...
's Iggeret Musar. For an estimate of Gerondi's ethical works and his partial indebtedness to the Sefer Hasidim see Zur Geschichte der Jüdisch-Ethischen Literatur des Mittelalters. He is also supposed to be mentioned, under the name of "R. Jonah," five times in the Tosafot
Tosafot
The Tosafot or Tosafos are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes...
.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- Moritz SteinschneiderMoritz SteinschneiderMoritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...
, Cat. Bodl. No. 5859; - Zevi Hirsch Edelmann, Hemdah Genuzah, No. 6 (letters of R. Hillel of Verona), Königsberg, 1856;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. vol. vii., Index;
- Julius FürstJulius FürstJulius Fürst , was a Jewish German orientalist.Fürst was a distinguished scholar of Semitic languages and literature...
, Bibl. Jud. i. 327-328; - David ConforteDavid ConforteDavid Conforte was a Hebrew literary historian born in Salonica, author of the literary chronicle known by the title Ḳore ha-Dorot.-Biography:...
, Kore ha-Dorot, pp. 37-38, Berlin, 1845; - AzulaiChaim Joseph David AzulaiChaim Joseph David Azulai ben Isaac Zerachia , commonly known as the Chida , was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious writings.- Biography :Azulai was born in Jerusalem, where he received his education...
, Shem ha-Gedolim, ed. Benjacob, pp. 75-76; - Gustav KarpelesGustav KarpelesGustav Karpeles was a German Jewish historian of literature and editor; son of Elijah Karpeles.-Life:He studied at the University of Breslau, where he attended also the Jewish Theological Seminary...
, Gesch. der Jüdischen Literatur, pp. 621 et seq.; - Winter and Wünsche, Jüdische Literatur, ii. 425-426, Treves, 1894;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 448-449, Warsaw, 1886;
- Heimann Joseph MichaelHeimann Joseph MichaelHeimann Joseph Michael was a Hebrew bibliographer born at Hamburg. He showed great acuteness of mind in early childhood, had a phenomenal memory, and was an indefatigable student. He studied Talmudics and received also private instruction in all the branches of a regular school education...
, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 1038, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1891