Isaac Aboab I

Who is Isaac Aboab I?

Isaac Aboab was a Jewish Talmudic scholar. He was also known by the pen name Menorat ha-Maor or Menoras HaMaor, a work which he authored. He lived in Spain during the 14th century. As shown by Zunz, he is not to be confused with Isaac Aboab, rabbi of Castile, the supercommentator of Naḥmanides, who died in 1493.

He was a man of affairs, who, towards the end of his life, devoted much time to literary work and to preaching, as he found that great Talmudic scholars and important seats of learning were rare. In his time, the Jews for whom he wrote still understood and spoke Arabic. He belonged to a period of intellectual decline when men took naturally to eclecticism. He combined extensive rabbinical knowledge with philosophical erudition, and was fond of mystic interpretation of the Mosaic laws and ceremonies. He quoted Aristotle and Plato, though only from secondary sources, and endeavored to illustrate passages from the Talmud and the midrashic literature, with which he was especially familiar, by utterances taken from the philosophical, the ethical, and the mystic literature of his time. His chief aim was the popularization of knowledge and the elevation of the masses.