Commentators:R. Chananel b. Chushiel/0/en

R. Chananel b. Chushiel

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R. Chananel

Name	R. Chananel b. Chushiel רבנו חננאל בן חושיאל, ר"ח
Dates	c. 965 – 1055
Location	Kairouan
Works	Commentaries on Talmud and Talmud
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by	His father R. Chushiel, R. Hai Gaon, R. Saadia Gaon
Impacted on	R. Nissim b. Yaakov, Rif, Rambam

New Edition

Background

Life

• Name – Ḥananel (or "Chananel"); some historians believe that his given name was Elhanan, but at some point later in his life he became referred to by the name Ḥananel.¹
  • Hebrew name – חננאל בן חושיאל (or, possible, אלחנן בן חושיאל) 
• Dates – c. 970-1057²
• Location – Kairouan (or "Qayrawan"), in modern-day Tunisia. Most historians believe that R. Hananel was born in Italy, likely Bari, and emigrated to Kairouan as an adult.³
• Occupation – Rabbinical judge and head of the local house of study
• Family – R. Hananel's father, R. Hushiel b. Elhanan, was an Italian who became the rabbinic leader of Kairouan. A tradition states that R. Hananel had nine daughters but no sons.
• Teachers – Throughout his commentary, R. Hananel constantly refers to "his teachers," who remain unnamed. It is likely that R. Hananel learned most of his Torah from his father, R. Hushiel b. Elhanan, who was the rabbinic leader of Kairouan.⁴
• Contemporaries – R. Hai Gaon, R. Nissim b. Yaakov, Shmuel haNagid
• Students – R. Nissim b. Yaakov
• Time period – 
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• World outlook – 

Works

• Biblical commentaries – 
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – 
  • Halakhic codes – 
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – 
• Jewish thought – 
• Misattributed works – Sefer Miktzo'ot

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 
• Peshat and derash – 

Methods

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Themes

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Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

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Possible Relationship

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Impact

Later exegetes

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Supercommentaries

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¹

This is based upon the fact that a letter of R. Hushiel b. Elhanan, the father of R. Hananel, refers to his son "Elhanan," who also appears in documentary evidence as a judge in Kairouan at the exact same time period as R. Hananel, and there is no evidence that R. Hushiel had two sons who were both rabbinic scholars. Menahem Ben-Sasson, The Emergence of the Local Jewish Community in the Muslim World: Qayrawan, 800-1057 [Hebrew, צמיחת הקהילה היהודית בארצות האסלאם] (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1996), p. 225-229

² Paris manuscript Mosseri II 133, quoted in Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1931), p. 246.

³ Rashbam to Bava Batra 86b refers to R. Hananel as איש רומי, "a man from Rome," (which is a general reference to Italian lands), and if R. Hananel is to be identified as the same "Elhanan" referred to in a letter by R. Hushiel b. Elhanan to R. Shmaryah of Egypt, then direct evidence exists for R. Hananel being born in Italy. This letter was published by Solomon Schechter, "Geniza Specimens. A Letter of Chushiel" The Jewish Quarterly Review, 1899:11, 643–650

⁴ The Sefer ha-'Arukh (page 166) refers to R Hananel on Bava Batra 40b who says ואמר דפרש לה אביו חושיאל ז”ל הכי להאי לישנא. Another instance of an author associating R. Hananel with his father's teaching is in Meiri Sanhedrin 27b.