Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi

Who is Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi?

Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi was a Spanish Talmudist and critic; a direct descendant of Zerahiah Ha-Levi, and probably, like him, a native of Girona, Spain; flourished at the end of the thirteenth century; died before 1303. About the middle of the thirteenth century he studied under Naḥmanides, at Girona, where he also met, as a fellow pupil, Solomon ben Adret, who later came to be his opponent. Aaron especially mentions among his teachers his brother Phinehas, and his nephew Isaac, the son of his brother Benveniste. His life appears to have been spent in Spain. In 1285 he was rabbi in Saragossa, where he was so highly respected that Nissim ben Reuben, in 1350, did not dare to annul a decision given by Aaron to a community in that city, even though he considered it illegal. About 1291 Aaron lived for a short time in Toledo. The assertion of some modern historians that, when advanced in age, he emigrated to Provence, is based on a misunderstanding of Meiri, where the correct reading is instead of, and instead of.

According to Isaac de Lattes, Aaron wrote commentaries on most of the treatises in the Talmud, of which but few exist to-day; namely, those on the treatises Beẓah and Ketubot, also commentaries on the Halakot of Alfasi, of which the portions on Berakot and Ta'anit have been published by S. and N. Bamberger under the title "Peḳudat ha-Lewiyim." He wrote also several compendiums of laws concerning the precepts of various rituals. The "Precepts Concerning Wine," which is added to the work "'Abodat ha-Ḳodesh" by his opponent, Solomon ben Adret, is the only one published; another part is in manuscript in the Bodleian Library. His pupil Yom-Ṭob Ashbili has preserved, in his novellæ to the Talmud, many of the explanations of Aaron. The reputation of Aaron as a high Talmudic authority did not arise from any of the above works, which were not widely published, but from his "Bedeḳ ha-Bayit", a criticism of the great work, "Torat ha-Bayit", written by Solomon ben Adret.