Rabbi Meir ben Solomon Abi-Sahula (

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: רבי מאיר בן שלמה בן סחולה; - after 1335) also known as ben Sahula or ibn Sahula was a 13th century

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kabbalist and Sephardic

tosafist The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot ( he, תוספות) are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The auth ...

. He is known for his final commentary on '' Sefer Bahir'', which he published under the pseudonym "Or HaGanuz" ("The Hidden Light").

Biography

Born around 1251 in

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, in his early years he studied under Joshua ibn Shuaib. He later affiliated himself with the kabbalistic school in Guadalajara, where he wrote a commentary on the

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material in Nachmanides' commentary on the

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. From 1320 to 1325, he began writing his own

tosafot The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot ( he, תוספות) are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The auth ...

; however he only completed part of

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. It was also during this time that he wrote a commentary on '' Sefer Yetzirah'' which he completed in 1331. In this commentary, ibn Sahula offers severe criticism of Nahmanides' comments on the first chapter of ''Sefer Yetzirah''. After finishing his commentary on ''Sefer Yetzirah'', he began to work on a commentary of ''Sefer Bahir'' which he finished in 1335. This would go on to be the final form of ''Sefer Bahir''. ibn Sahula also wrote a kabbalistic commentary on

Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (also Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer; Aramaic: פרקי דרבי אליעזר, or פרקים דרבי אליעזר, Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer; abbreviated PdRE) is an aggadic-midrashic work on the Torah containing exegesis and re ...

, which has unfortunately been lost. His comments on ''Sefer Yetzirah'' and ''Sefer Bahir'' are considered to be highly arbitrary, and he is criticized for attributing views to Naḥmanides which contradict the latter's real opinions. Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz even accuses him of "not aiming at the truth." That being said, some scholars such as Meir Poppers praised ibn Sahula for his commentary on ''Sefer Yetzirah'', and Poppers made it a basis for his own commentary.

References

13th-century Castilian rabbis 13th-century Sephardi Jews Tosafists 1250s births 14th-century deaths {{rabbi-stub