Sheshet ben Isaac ben Joseph Benveniste (lived in the latter half of the 12th century) was a

Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...

Jewish physician and writer. Like Isaac Benveniste, who is supposed to have been his father, he was styled "

Nasi Nasi may refer to: Food Dishes Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes *Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi'' *Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes: ** Nasi ...

" (prince). According to one source Al-Harizi called him the "pillar of the world and the foundation-stone of all pietists".

Biography

He received his education at

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

, his probable birthplace; afterward he lived at

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and later at

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

, in which city he died about 1209. It is said that he owed his high position to his knowledge of Arabic. He practised medicine, and was the author of a medical work, manuscript copies of which are still extant at Oxford and Munich. Such was his reputation as a physician that patients came long distances to consult him, and some are said to have journeyed even from

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

(e.g., Solomon ben Hananel). Benveniste, whose generosity is praised by

Al-Ḥarizi Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi (, ), was a rabbi, translator, poet, and traveler active in al-Andalus (mid-12th century Toledo, Spain? – 1225 in Aleppo, Ayyubid dynasty, Ayyubid Syria). He was supported by wealthy ...

, was poetically gifted and composed several liturgical songs. Even in his old age he remained a friend of free investigation, as the following epigram on Meïr Abulafia shows: :''You ask why 'lustrous' he is named,'' :''Though he the light so cheaply rated;'' :''Because the dusk we 'twilight' name:'' :''By language-contrasts thoughts are mated.'' Benveniste directed a letter to the congregation of Lunel, in answer to the epistle of Abulafia to that congregation, in which he freely expresses himself upon the value of

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

's "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah," because it enabled the laity to control the judgments rendered by the Rabbis. He carried on a lively correspondence with Nasi Kalonymus ben Ṭodros and with Levi ben Moses of Narbonne, where his brother Joseph also resided. He lost his three sons in their prime. He was also known in his day as the "elder-prophet", a man "on whom the spirit of the Lord dwelt". In one of his poems he describes a vision that came to him in a dream: "I saw an angel standing before me; his spirit came to me and I began to prophesy: Oh, you who seek visions, listen to my words--the Lord, who has embittered my soul, is now good to me; He has said that He will answer me in my time of trouble.Prophetic inspiration after the prophets, Abraham J. Heschel, 1996, p. 23"

References

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

, Hebr. Bibl. xiii. 106 et seq.; *

Heinrich Grätz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

, Gesch.der Juden, vi. 1, note 1; vii. 41; * idem, ''Schechet Benveniste über Maimuni's Wirksamkeit'', in Monatsschrift, xxv. 509 et seq. (the letter is reprinted in Grätz, Hebr. tr. H. Appendix, p. 11); * Revue. Etudes Juives, xxxix. 62 et seq., 217 et seq.

External links

Sheshet Benveniste , Galeria de Metges Catalans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benveniste, Sheshet Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Provençal Jews 12th-century French physicians Medieval Jewish physicians of France 12th-century French writers 12th-century French Jews Medieval Jewish writers French male writers