Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1235 |
| Died | 1310 (aged 74–75) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet (Hebrew:שלמה בן אברהם אבן אדרת orSolomon son of Abraham son of Aderet)[1] (1235 – 1310) was amedievalrabbi,halakhist, andTalmudist. He is widely known as theRashba (Hebrew:רשב״א), the Hebrewacronym of his title and name:RabbiShlomobenAvraham.
Aderet was born inBarcelona,Crown of Aragon, in 1235. He became a successful banker and leader ofSpanish Jewry of his time. As a rabbinical authority his fame was such that he was designated as El Rab d'España ("The Rabbi of Spain"). He served as rabbi of theMain Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. He died in 1310.
Aderet's teachers wereNahmanides andYonah Gerondi. He was a master in the study of the Talmud and was not opposed to the Kabbala. Aderet was very active as a rabbi and as an author. Under his auspices and recommendation, part of Maimonides's commentary on the Mishnah was translated fromJudeo-Arabic intoMishnaic Hebrew. Crowds of disciples attended his Talmudic lectures, many of whom came from distant places. Questions in significant numbers, dealing with ritual, the most varied topics of the Halakah, and religious philosophy, were addressed to him from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Moravia and even from Asia Minor.
Aderet's responsum to theMargraviate of Moravia in the year 1255 represents the earliest ever recorded evidence of a permanent Jewish presence inAusterlitz and inTřešť, as well as one of earliest recorded Jewish sources for that region.[2]
His responsa show evidence of wide reading, keen intelligence, and systematic thought. They also afford a clear insight into the communal life of the time, portraying Aderet's contemporaries, and are of value for the study of rabbinical procedure and the intellectual development of the age in which he lived. Only half of these responsa have been published, and they total three thousand.
Among his numerous students wereYom Tov of Seville andBahya ben Asher.
A manuscript purporting to be a certificate of indebtedness, dated 1262, in favour of "Solomon Adret of Barcelona" and a passport for the same Adret, dated 1269, are still extant.[3]
Aderet had to contend with the external enemies of Judaism and religious disputes and excesses within its ranks. He wrote a refutation of the charges ofRaymond Martini, aDominican friar of Barcelona, who, in his work,Pugio Fidei, had collected passages from the Talmud and the Midrash and interpreted themin a manner hostile to Judaism. These charges also induced Aderet to write a commentary on thehaggadot, of which only a fragment is now extant. He also refuted the attacks of aMuslim who asserted thatChristian priests had falsified the Bible. M. Schreiner[4] has shown that this Muslim wasibn Hazm, and the book referred to wasAl-Milal wal-Niḥal "Religions and Sects".
Aderet also opposed the increasing extravagances of theKabbalists, who made significant headway in theIberian Peninsula and were represented by Nissim ben Abraham of Avila, a pretended worker of miracles, and byAbraham Abulafia, the kabbalistic visionary. He combated these with vigour, but displayed no less animosity toward the philosophic-rationalistic conception of Judaism then prevailing, particularly in France, which was represented byLevi ben Abraham ben Hayyim, who treated most important religious questions with the utmost freedom and was joined byIsaac Albalag and others.
Opposed to these was another tendency, the chief object of which was the preservation of the pure faith of Judaism. At the head of this movement stoodAbba Mari ben Moses ha-Yarḥi. He appealed to Aderet for assistance. An extensive correspondence ensued between theHakhmei Provence (the sages of what is now southern France) and the northern Spanish authorities, Aderet taking an essential part. Afterward, this correspondence was collected and published byAbba Mari in a separate work,Minḥat Qenaot.[5]
Aderet, whose disposition was peaceable, endeavoured to conciliate the opposing spirits at first. Ultimately, he was called upon to decide on the affair. On July 26, 1305, together with his colleagues of the rabbinate of Barcelona, he pronounced the ban of excommunication (ḥerem) over all who studied physics or metaphysics before the completion of their thirtieth year. A protest against this ban may be found in a poem in which Philosophy "calls out in a loud voice against . . . Solomon ben Adret and against all the rabbis of France . . . who have placed under the ban all people who approach her".[6] Those who desired to study medicine as a profession were exempted from the ban. A particular ban was pronounced against the rationalistic Bible exegetes and the philosophic Haggadah commentators, their writings and their adherents. Enforcing these bans caused Aderet much trouble and embittered the closing years of his life. He left three sons, Isaac, Judah, and Astruc Solomon, all learned in the Talmud.
Aderet defended Maimonides during thecontemporary debates over his works and authorized the translation of his commentary on the Mishnah from Judeo-Arabic to Hebrew.
Nevertheless, Aderet opposed thephilosophic-rationalistic approach to Judaism often associated with Maimonides. He was part of thebeth din in Barcelona that forbade men younger than 25 from studying secularphilosophy ornatural science. However, an exception was made for those who studiedmedicine. On July 26, 1305, the Rashba wrote:
"In that city [Barcelona] are those who write iniquity about the Torah and if there would be aheretic writing books, they should be burnt as if they were the book of sorcerers."[7]
Of the works of Solomon ben Aderet there have appeared in print:
His commentaries upon seven Talmudic treatises published at Constantinople in 1720, and at Berlin in 1756. Similar disquisitions upon five treatises were published at Venice in 1523 and at Amsterdam in 1715. He wrote besides a number of disquisitions upon single treatises. His Talmud commentaries are now known asHiddushei HaRashba.
Not all commentaries traditionally attributed to Rashba were actually composed by him.Elchonon Wasserman stated that the commentary on Sukkah attributed to Rashba was actually written byYom Tov Asevilli, the commentary on Ketubot was actually written byNachmanides, and the commentary on Menachot was written by an unknown author other than Rashba.Yisrael Meir Kagan suggested that the commentary on Menachot was byIsaiah di Trani, whileIsrael Joshua Trunk argued that the author wasSolomon ben Abraham of Montpellier.[9]: 41
Aderet was considered an outstanding rabbinic authority, and more than 3,000 of hisresponsa are known to be extant. Questions were addressed to him from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, and even from Asia Minor. His responsa, which cover the entire gamut of Jewish life, are concise and widely quoted by halakhic authorities.
Aderet's responsa also illustrate his opposition tomessianism and prophetic pretensions as a general phenomenon, with examples againstNissim ben Abraham andAbraham Abulafia.
His responsa were printed in Bologna (1539), Venice (1545), Hanau (1610), and other places. The second part of his responsa appeared under the title "Toledot Adam" (The Generations of Man) at Leghorn in 1657, the third part at the same place in 1778, the fourth part at Salonica in 1803, and the fifth part at Leghorn in 1825.[8]
According to Elchonon Wasserman, some responsa attributed to Rashba were actually written by other authors, notablyMeir of Rothenburg.[9]: 41
| Nachmanides | Yonah Gerondi | ||||||||||||
| Rashba | |||||||||||||
| Bahya ben Asher | Yom Tov Asevilli | ||||||||||||
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."ADRET, SOLOMON BEN ABRAHAM (or RaSHBa)".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."ADRET".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."ADRET, SOLOMON BEN ABRAHAM (or RaSHBa)".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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