Simchah (Simon) ben Abraham Calimani (1699 – August 2, 1784) was a Venetian

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

and author. He was a versatile writer, and equally prominent as

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, poet, orator, and

Talmudist The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. During his rabbinate Calimani was engaged as corrector at the Hebrew printing office in Venice. Among the great number of books revised by him was the

responsum ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

of David ben Zimra (RaDBaZ), to which he added an index, and the ''Yad Ḥaruẓim'' (on Hebrew versification) of Gerson Ḥefeẓ, enriched with interesting notes of his own. Calimani was the author of the following works: (1) ''II Rabbino Morale-Toscano'', an Italian translation of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

treatise Abot (in collaboration with Jacob Saraval, Venice, 1729, often reprinted); (2) ''Kelale Diḳduḳe Leshon 'Eber'', a Hebrew grammar inserted at the end of the Bible, edited at Venice, 1739; (3) ''Grammatica Ebrea'', an Italian translation of the preceding work, Venice, 1751; Pisa, 1815; (4) ''Ḳol Simḥah'' (Voice of Joy), an allegorical drama, with Jealousy, Folly, and Wisdom as the heroes, Venice, 1758; (5) a Hebrew-Italian dictionary, left unfinished. Calimani was liberal in his religious views, and took part in the campaign directed by Wessely against the delivery of

casuistic Casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve Ethical dilemma, moral problems by extracting or extending abstract rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ...

lectures (

pilpul ''Pilpul'' (, loosely meaning 'sharp analysis'; ) is a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either explain conceptual differences between various halakhic rulings or to reconcile any apparent contradictio ...

) in the synagogues.

References

* 18th-century Republic of Venice rabbis Grammarians of Hebrew Talmudists 1699 births 1784 deaths 18th-century Venetian writers {{Italy-reli-bio-stub

See also

References