Kimhi was born around 1127, the eldest son ofJoseph Kimhi[1] and the brother ofDavid Kimhi,[2] known as theRaDaK.[3] He was born and lived inProvence inOccitania, an area that was heavily under the influence of theSephardic community of that time. Little else is known of his early life.
Like his father, he wrote a number of commentaries on the Bible, basing himself on the literal meaning of the text. His surviving works include commentaries on the books ofProverbs,Job,[5]Ezra, andNehemiah.[6]
He also wrote a book of essays onHebrew grammar,[7][8] known, after the first three words, asMahalak Shebile Ha-daat, or briefly asMahalak. In it he described the underlying principles of his commentaries, combined with tangential discussions ofmedieval philosophy. This handbook was of great historical importanceas in the first half of the 16th century it became the favourite manual for the study of Hebrew among non-Judaic scholars.[9]
^Rooden, Peter T. van (1989).Theology, biblical scholarship, and rabbinical studies in the seventeenth century: Constantijn L'Empereur (1591-1648), professor of Hebrew and theology at Leiden. Leiden, the Netherlands; New York: E.J. Brill. p. 187.ISBN978-90-04-09035-4.OCLC1000849816.
^Steinschneider, Moritz; Manekin, Charles Harry; Langermann, Y. Tzvi; Biesterfeldt, Hinrich (2013).Moritz Steinschneider: the Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as transmitters. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 216.ISBN978-94-007-7313-4.OCLC1048079803.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bacher, William (1911). "Ḳimḥis.v. Moses Ḳimḥi". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 800.