Hanoch ben Moses

Who is Hanoch ben Moses?

R. Hanoch ben Moses was a Spanish rabbi. Almost all of the information we have about him comes from the Sefer ha-Qabbalah by R. Abraham ibn Daud.

Along with his parents, R. Moses ben Hanoch and his wife, R. Hanoch was captured by the Moorish pirate Ibn Rumahis and brought to Cordova. R. Hanoch eventually succeeded his father as rabbi and Rosh Yeshivah there, although for a time he faced opposition by R. Joseph ibn Abitur and by the latter's patron, Yaakov ibn Jo, the lay leader of the Jewish community of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

His best-known student was R. Shmuel ha-Nagid.

Ibn Daud reports that relations between R. Hanoch and R. Hai Gaon were strained, since the increasing stature of the Spanish yeshivot led to a lessening of their communities' financial contributions to the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. Indeed, R. Hanoch seems to have corresponded only rarely with the Babylonian Geonim. However, R. Hai demonstrated his respect for R. Hanoch, by honoring his excommunication of Ibn Abitur and refusing the latter an audience.

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