Everything about Nissim Of Gerona totally explained
Rabbi
Nissim ben Reuven (
1320 -
1380,
Hebrew:
נסים בן ראובן) of
Girona,
Catalonia was an influential
talmudist and authority on
Jewish law. He was one of the last of the great Spanish medieval talmudic scholars. He is also known as the
RaN (
ר"ן, the
Hebrew acronym of his name).
Biography
The
Ran was born in
Barcelona,
Catalonia. He was a
Physician and had knowledge of
astronomy. The RaN's teacher isn't known; his works refer to a R. Perez as "morenu" ("our teacher"), but it's thought that his father, Reuben b. Nissim, was his primary teacher. RaN was considered the greatest
Halachic authority of his generation, and queries were sent to him from throughout the Jewish diaspora. His closest disciples were the
Rivash (Isaac ben Sheshet) and
Hasdai Crescas.
In his analyses, Nissim frequently refutes other
rishonim; in his
legal rulings however, he generally adopts their opinions in practice. He was "no friend of
mysticism", and even reproved
Nahmanides for devoting too much time to the
Kabbalah.
Works
His best known work is his
commentary and explanation of
Alfasi's "Hilkhot", which had, at that time, been adopted for practical decisions. He is very detailed and explicit where the subject is important from a practical point of view, but extremely brief when dealing with theory.
Ran didn't write the commentary on all of Alfasi, although the whole commentary is often ascribed to him.
Ran is now printed with
Alfasi in all standard editions of the
Talmud.
Ran also wrote a commentary on the
Talmud. The commentary is oriented toward
practical decisions as opposed to theory. The commentary has been printed only on some tractates, the rest exists in
manuscript or has been lost.
Other works include,
responsa, a recently published commentary on the Bible, a work of philosophy, and a collection of sermons.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Nissim Of Gerona'.
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