Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, November 23rd, 2024
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Encyclopedias
Gerondi, Isaac B. Zerahiah Halevi

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

Search for…
Resource Toolbox

Talmudist; lived in Gerona in the twelfth century. He was the father of Zerahiah ha-Levi, author of "Sefer ha-Ma'or," and of Berachiah ha-Levi, author of some piyyuṭim; among the latter are to be found compositions for Sabbath Parah which perhaps formed a supplement to Gerondi's poems for the four special Sabbaths (). Gerondi is the author of "Megillat ha-Neḥamah," a work on civil law, which is no longer extant. Of his religious poems about fifty have been preserved; they include piyyuṭim for Sabbaths Sheḳalim, Zakor, and Rosh ha-Ḥodesh, for the Feast of Weeks, and for the Day of Atonement (among them a so-called "Short 'Abodah" for Shaḥarit, beginning , and quoted by Isaac Ḳimḥi); a piyyuṭ on the death of Moses, one for Simḥat Torah, and some seliḥot. In his poetry he makes use of meter, for which he expresses a preference.

Gerondi's poems are highly praised by Menahem di Lonsano, and have been introduced into the rituals of Avignon, Carpentras, Montpellier, Oran, and Tlemçen; some are also found in "Ayyelet ha-Shaḥar," as well as in the French, Polish, and Roman rituals. He wrote an Aramaic poem to Zerahiah's "Sefer ha-Ma'or," in which he clearly demonstrates his familiarity with the Aramaic idiom.

Bibliography:
  • Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot (ed. Cassel), p. 13b;
  • Reifmann, Toledot Rabbi Zeraḥyah ha-Levi, pp. 3, 37;
  • Landshuth, 'Ammude ha-'Abodah, p. 116;
  • Zunz, Literaturgesch, pp. 410, 463;
  • Luzzatto, Naḥalat, p. 43;
  • Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 255.
S. S.
H. B.
Bibliography Information
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Gerondi, Isaac B. Zerahiah Halevi'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tje/​g/gerondi-isaac-b-zerahiah-halevi.html. 1901.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile