Commentators:R. Avraham Porto (Minchah Belulah)/0

R. Avraham Porto (Minchah Belulah)

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Minchah Belulah

Name	R. Avraham Menachem b. R. Yaakov HaKohen Rapa of Porto (Rapaport) ר' אברהם מנחם ב"ר יעקב הכהן רפא מפורטו
Dates	c. 1520 – c. 1596
Location	Italy
Works	Commentary on Torah
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by	R. Eliyahu Bachur
Impacted on

Background¹

Life

• Name – ר' אברהם מנחם ב"ר יעקב הכהן רפא מפורטו‎²
• Dates – c. 1520 – c. 1596
• Location – Born in Italy,³ lived much of his life in Venice,⁴ served as a Rabbi in Cremona⁵ and then Verona.⁶
• Occupation – Prior to holding rabbinic positions, R. Avraham worked in Venice as a proofreader.⁷ Despite his continued work in Venice in 1573-74, he was already serving as a rabbi in Cremona in 1571, and he became the ruling Halakhic authority in Cremona by 1574. In the wake of a deadly epidemic in 1575, R. Avraham was appointed one of three 'Health Ministers' in Cremona.⁸ In 1585, he left Cremona to assume the position of the assistant to the elderly rabbi of Verona, whom he then succeeded one year later.⁹ In 1592, he resigned his position due to infirmity and old age and left Verona.
• Family – R. Avraham's wife died in 1571. They had two sons, Yaakov and Yekutiel.¹⁰
• Teachers – R. Eliyahu Bachur,¹¹ R. Shemuel Yehuda Katzenellenbogen¹²
• Contemporaries – R. Azariah de Rossi,¹³ R. Eliezer Ashkenazi,¹⁴ R. David b. Avraham Provencal, R. Yehuda b. Yosef Moscato.
• Students –
• Time period – The entire second of half of the 16th century was a difficult time for Italian Jewry. Jews faced restrictions and persecutions mandated by both the papal and governmental authorities. For decades, Jews lived under the threat of expulsion, culminating with the 1597 expulsion of Jews from the Duchy of Milan. In 1553, R. Avraham witnessed the burning of the Talmud in Venice,¹⁵ and he instituted the dates of the burning as annual days of mourning and fasting.

Works

• Biblical commentaries – Minchah Belulah on the Torah.¹⁶ His commentaries on other books of Tanakh and Avot remain in manuscript.¹⁷
• Rabbinics – Unpublished responsa¹⁸
• Other works – Tzafenat Paneach¹⁹
• Lost works – R. Avraham refers to a work he authored to prove that demons exist.²⁰

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical –
• Genre –
• Structure –
• Language –
• No Kabbalah – R. Avraham states (in both his preface and afterword) that he avoided Kabbalistic content in his Torah commentary, explaining with humility that such matters are too sublime for him.²¹
• General knowledge – The commentary reflects knowledge of medicine,²² philosophy,²³ geometry, physics, optics, astronomy, music, chess,²⁴ folk literature, and poetry.²⁵ Besides Italian, he also knew Latin and German.²⁶

Methods

• –

Themes

• –

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts –
• Printings –
• Textual layers –

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources –
• Teachers –
• Foils –

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

Supercommentaries

¹ This section incorporates information from M. Benayahu and G. Laras, "מינוי 'שרי בריאות' בקרימונה בשנת של"ה והמחלוקת שבין הרב אליעזר אשכנזי והרב אברהם מנחם פורטו הכהן", Michael 1 (1972): 78-143 (hereafter: Benayahu and Laras, Appointment), and J. Reifmann, תולדות אבי משפחת רפאפורט (Vienna, 1872): 3-26 (hereafter: Reifmann, Rapaport).

² The family name consists of two parts: Refa is based on the German for "raven", a symbol which appeared on the family crest (see Reifmann, Rapaport: 3). Porto is a place in Italy. These two elements were eventually contracted into "Rapaport". There are many current descendants of the Rapaport family, who are considered verified kohanim.

³ His precise birthplace is not known.

⁴ See below that he witnessed the 1553 burning of the Talmud in Venice and was a proofreader in a publishing house there.

⁵ He was in Cremona from 1574 until at least 1582.

⁶ 1584-1592.

⁷ He worked on editions of the works of R. Yosef Karo, including Beit Yosef Orach Chayyim (1564), the first edition of Shulchan Arukh (1565), and Kesef Mishneh (1573-74). He also proofread Yalkut Shimoni in 1566. See Benayahu and Laras, Appointment: 81.

⁸ These ministers made decrees intended to halt the spread of disease, both through pragmatic regulations and religious penitence. They prohibited all forms of gambling and decreed fast days. This resulted in a great controversy, with R. Eliezer Ashkenazi leading the opposition to the ministers. See Benayahu and Laras, Appointment, for a thorough discussion of this controversy.

⁹ R. Avraham signed a 5-year contract that was later extended. The terms of this contract included obligations to run the local yeshiva, teach the laity, deliver a weekly sermon, meet with community leaders, and represent the community before the ruling authorities. See I. Sonne, "אבני בנין לתולדות היהודים בוירונה", Kovetz al Yad, 3 (1940): 147, who argues that this last role required a rather worldly rabbi, and that R. Avraham fit this bill.

¹⁰ Both sons received rabbinic ordination from R. S"Y Katzenellenbogen.

¹¹ The Minchah Belulah Bereshit 47:26 writes "ומפי אלופי ר' אליה המדקדק ז"ל שמעתי".

¹² R. Avraham refers to R. Shemuel Yehuda (son of Maharam Padua) as "מורי ואלופי" in a unpublished responsum (see Benayahu and Laras, Appointment: 80, note 7). However, considering that there is no other evidence for this teacher-disciple relationship, and that R. Shemuel Yehuda and R. Avraham were very close in age, it is possible that this is simply a respectful appellation.

¹³ R. Avraham initially banned R. Azariah's work Meor Einayim, but retracted his ban after other Italian rabbis permitted it.

¹⁴ Regarding their disputes, see Benayahu and Laras, Appointment.

¹⁵ He references this searing event in his commentary on Devarim 33:2.

¹⁶ According to the author's colophon at then end of the work, it was completed in 1582 in Cremona. However, it was first published only in 1594 in Verona. It was republished together with Rashi's commentary in 1795 in Hamburg, and again in modern times in Benei Berak, 1989.

¹⁷ The manuscript is now located in the National Library of Israel (Jer 6689=28).

¹⁸ The Mantova 38 manuscript containing many of these responsa can be viewed online. See Benayahu and Laras, Appointment: 78.

¹⁹ A cypher-code invented by R. Avraham, published in Savioneta, 1555 (two years after the burning of the Talmud in Venice).

²⁰ See Minchah Belulah Devarim 32:17. The work was intended to refute the view of the 'philosophers', and especially that of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (a 15th century Italian Renaissance philosopher).

²¹ He attributes the popularity of Kabbalah in late 16th century Italy to the lack of availability of Talmud volumes after their burning.

²² He mentions that he studied medicine by Vittore Trincavella in Minchah Belulah Bemidbar 11:20, and he references medical knowledge a number of times in his commentary (e.g. Bereshit 16:2, 21:1, 30:14).

²³ Although he knew philosophy, R. Avraham expresses opposition towards it in Minchah Belulah Bereshit 17:1.

²⁴ See Minchah Belulah Vayikra 26:8.

²⁵ References to these fields can be found throughout Minchah Belulah. See A. Laizer's introduction to the 1989 (Benei Berak) edition of Minchah Belulah: 8-9.

²⁶ Regarding the fields of study and languages, see Reifmann, Rapaport: 3.