Asher ben Meshullam

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Who is Asher ben Meshullam?

Rabbeinu Asher ben Meshullam was a Jewish theologian and Talmudic scholar who lived at Lunel in the second half of the twelfth century CE. A renowned Talmudist, he was a son of the well-known Rabbeinu Meshullam ben Jacob, and a pupil of Rabbeinu Joseph ibn Plat and the Ravad of Posquières, whose ascctic tendencies he shared. Benjamin of Tudela, in the first part of his "Travels," says that Rabbeinu Asher lived in complete seclusion, wholly devoted to the study of the Torah, and that he never tasted meat. At the same time Rabbeinu Asher was not hostile to philosophy. Rabbeinu Yehudah Ibn Tibbon in a letter to Rabbeinu Asher, praised his fondness for science, and in his testament exhorted his son to cultivate Rabbeinu Asher's friendship. Rabbeinu Asher's alleged leaning toward the Kabbalah, mentioned by Heinrich Graetz, is countered; that the fact that he was responsible for the translation of Solomon ibn Gabirol's Tikkun Midoth ha-Nefesh is no proof for or against his kabbalistic leanings; the kabbalists had a strong leaning toward ibn Gabirol's mysticism; and, after all, the above-mentioned work of Gabirol is moral, rather than strictly philosophical, in its tendencies.

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  • Jewish people

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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