R. Yitzchak Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak)

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Akeidat Yitzchak
Name
R. Yitzchak ben Moshe Arama
ר' יצחק בן משה עראמה
Dates1420-1494
LocationSpain
WorksAkeidat Yitzchak
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced byRambam
Impacted onAbarbanel

Background

Life

  • Name – 
    • Hebrew name – ר' יצחק בן משה עראמה1
    • _ name – 
  • Dates – c. 1420-c.1494
  • Location – Spain,2 Naples3
  • Education –  He had a broad Jewish and general education.4
  • Occupation
    • Headed a yeshivah in Zamora, and then served as rabbi for the communities of Tarragona5 and Fraga6 in Aragon.
    • After failing to open a yeshivah in Tarragona, he focused his energies on pulpit instruction, winning renown for his derashot (sermons), which were designed to counter the Christian sermons that Jews of Aragon were forced to attend.
    • He later became rabbi of Calatayud, where he was able to found a yeshivah, revise his derashot for publication, and author other works.7 
    • Participated in several public disputations with Christian scholars.8
  • Family – R. Yitzchak had a son, R. Meir Arama, who fled with him to Naples, and who was an important scholar in his own right.9
  • Teachers – 
  • ContemporariesR. Yitzchak Abarbanel1010About R. Yitzchak Abarbanel
  • Students – 
  • Time period – 
  • World outlook – 

Works10

  • Biblical commentaries – Akeidat Yitchak on the Torah,11 commentary on the five Megillot,12  Yad Avshalom (commentary to Mishlei).13
  • Rabbinics – 
    • Talmudic novellae – 
    • Halakhic codes – 
    • Responses to the works of others – 
    • Responsa – 
  • Jewish thought – Chazut Kashah14
  • Other works – R. Yitzchak authored poems and a commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, which are now lost.
  • Misattributed works – 

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

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

Methods

  • – 

Themes

  • – 

Textual Issues

  • Manuscripts – 
  • Printings – Originally published in Salonika, 1522, and reprinted many times since. Y. Hacker15  has identified a copy held by the National Library of Israel of the Venice 1547 edition that was proofread and corrected by its original owner against the author’s autograph manuscript (which is no longer extant).16
  • Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

  • Earlier Sources – 
  • Teachers – 
  • Foils – 

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

  • Abarbanel – Abarbanel incorporated into his own commentary large portions of the Akeidat Yitzchak's commentary without attribution.  This aroused the ire of the Akeidat Yitzchak's son, R. Meir Arama.17

Supercommentaries

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