Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("95987")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Jewish_commentaries_on_the_Bible">biblical commentator
This article describes the first printing of the Hebrew Bible with major Jewish commentaries, notes concerning translations into Aramaic and English, lists some universally accepted Jewish commentaries with notes on their method of approach and lists modern translations into English with notes.-...
, philosopher, and grammarian. Born in
NarbonneNarbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon région. It lies from Paris in the Aude département, of which it is a sous-préfecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
,
ProvenceProvence a province in southern France, was a great Torah center in the times of the Tosafists. The rabbis of Provence were separately classified as Hachmei Provence - the wise of Provence, or Provençal rabbis...
, he was the son of Rabbi
Joseph KimhiJoseph Ḳimḥi , was a medieval Jewish rabbi and biblical commentator. He was the father of Moses and David Kimhi, and the teacher of Rabbi Menachem Ben Simeon....
and the brother of Rabbi
Moses KimhiMoses Kimhi was a medieval Jewish biblical commentator and grammarian. Kimhi was the eldest son of Joseph Kimhi and the brother of David Kimhi, known as the RaDaK...
, both biblical commentators and grammarians. Works of the Kimhi family were underwritten by the Ibn Yahya family of Lisbon, Portugal.
David Kimhi is best known today for his commentaries on the books of the
ProphetsNevi'im is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. It falls between the Torah and Ketuvim .Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts:...
. He also wrote commentaries on the books of Genesis, Psalms, and
ChroniclesThe Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible . In the masoretic text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim...
. His work focuses on the language,
nikkud (vocalization), rabbinic tradition of the reading,
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
, and literal meaning of the words. He also addresses key issues such as the authorship of the various books and the historical eras in which the
prophetIn religion, a prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans...
s were active, as well as other
historicalHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and
geographicalGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
questions.
His commentary on Genesis tends toward the philosophical. He seeks out the
ethicalEthics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is , how moral values should be determined , how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations , how moral...
underpinnings of the stories, believing that they were not included in the text for purely historical reasons, but rather for their moral message. He makes extensive use of the ancient
TargumA targum , referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
translation of the text into
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
attributed to
Jonathan ben UzzielJonathan ben Uzziel [Alternatively Yonatan ben Uziel or Yonosson ben Uziel] is known as the author of Targum Jonathan. He is also said to have written a book of Kabbalah known as Megadnim. He was one of the 80 Tannaim who studied under Hillel the Elder. His tomb is in Amukah in the Galilee near...
, commenting on it and bringing variant readings. The commentary also includes a mystical interpretation of the
Garden of EdenThe Garden of Eden is a location described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
and the story of
Cain and AbelCain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the Bible and Torah at and the Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one"...
. A similar, mystical interpretation by Kimhi can also be found in his glosses on the first chapter of the
Book of EzekielThe Book of Ezekiel is a book of the Hebrew Bible named after the prophet Ezekiel, a prophet from the sixth-century BC. This book records Ezekiel's preaching. His name means "God strengthens" or "May God strengthen". Ezekiel lived out his prophetic career among the community of exiled Judeans in...
, describing the Divine Chariot. When he does not understand a particular text, he follows the example of
RashiShlomo Yitzhaki, better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh .Acclaimed for his ability to present the basic meaning of the text in a...
and writes, "I did not understand the reason why this story appears in this particular place," or "I did not find a proper reason for it."
Kimhi was also a noted grammarian. His book,
Michlol , draws heavily on the earlier works of Rabbi
Judah ben David HayyujJudah ben David Hayyuj was a Spanish-Jewish grammarian; born in Fez, Morocco, about 945...
and Rabbi Jonah ibn Janah. He also composed a
dictionaryA dictionary is a collection of words in a specific language, often listed alphabetically, with definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of the
Hebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
called
Sefer Hashorashim (Book of Roots) .
Kimhi also delved into philosophy and the
scienceScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
s, and was very much influenced by both
Abraham Ibn EzraRabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra was born in Tudela, Islamic Spain , and died c. 1164 ....
and
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
. He was a staunch defender of Maimonides in the debates over his writings.
External links