Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla
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Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla (1248 – after 1305) (
kabbalist, student of Abraham Abulafia
.
Biography
Born at
Peñafiel
after 1305.
In different manuscripts of the work the author's name is variously written "Gribzul," "Karnitol," and "Necatil," all corruptions of "Gikatilla."
Works
Ginnat Egoz
Gikatilla was a prolific writer; he wrote his first work (Ginnat Egoz, גנת אגוז) when only twenty-six. It is a kabbalistic treatise in three parts (Hanau, 1615).
- The title, taken from the , the three main elements of Kabbalah, while egoz "nut" is the emblem of mysticism.
- The first part, in five chapters, treats of the various Tzevaot"armies", he says, applies to all the beings of the three natures, earthly, heavenly (or spheres), and spirits (or forms). The interpretation of tzevaot as "armies of letters" leads him over to the second part.
- The second part treats the letters of the alphabet. He declares that the number ten emanated from the Tetragrammaton, the primitive cause, and is the source of all being; he attempts to prove his statement by different combinations based on religion, philosophy, physics, and mysticism. He shows that the Talmudicview that space is filled with spirits agrees with the belief of the philosophers that there is no vacuum. He also treats here of the revolutions of the sun and moon, giving the relative sizes of the planets.
- The third part is a treatise, in four chapters, on the vowels. The three primitive vowels (, represent the composition or the construction of the worlds; the "pataḥ" and "ḳameẓ" represent their movements.
Gikatilla at times criticizes the Samuel ibn Naghrela, and Abraham ibn Ezra. Isaac ben Samuel of Acre in his Me'irat 'Enayyim severely criticizes Gikatilla for too free usage of the Tetragrammaton.
Sha'are Orah
Sha'are Orah, or Sefer ha-Orah, (שערי אורה) is Gikatilla's most influential work.
Reuchlin as a defense against his adversaries.[5]
Contents and Style
Sha'are Orah (Mantua, 1561) deals with the names of God.
- It discusses 300 names,sephirah. Each sephirah has one main name, but may have many others. Some names are associated with more than one sephirah.
- The purpose of the book is "so that you can understand and experience the 'fountain of living waters' (Jer. 2,13) that flows from all his names, and when you attain this 'then you will prosper and have good success' (Joshua 1,8)".[7]
Sephirah
|
Holy Name [8] |
|---|---|
| כתר, Keter, "Crown" | אהי"ה, Eheye, "I AM" |
| חכמה, Chokhmah, "Wisdom" | יה, Yah, "LORD" |
| בינה, Binah, "Understanding" | יהו"ה, Havayah, "LORD" |
| חסד, Chesed, "Kindness" | אל, El, "God" |
| גבורה, Gevurah, "Severity" | אלהים, Elohim, "God" |
| תפארת, Tiferet, "Beauty" | יהו"ה, Havayah, "LORD" |
| נצח, Netzach, "Eternity" | יהו"ה צבאות, Havayah Tsevaot, "LORD of hosts" |
| הוד, Hod, "Splendor" | אלהים צבאות, Elohim Tsevaot, "God of hosts" |
| יסוד, Yesod, "Foundation" | אל חי, El Chai, "the living God" |
| מלכות, Malkuth, "Kingship" | אדני, Adonai, "my Lord" |
Gikatilla takes an attitude somewhat hostile to philosophy. He quotes only the Sefer Yeẓirah and the Pirḳe Hekalot,.
Other works
- Sha'are Ṣedeḳ or Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, another treatise by Gikatilla on the ten Riva di Trento, 1561).
- Sefer ha-Niqqud, a mystical explanation of the niqqudim, included with the Arṣeh Lebanon (Venice, 1601);
- Sod ha-Ḥashmal, a kabbalistic commentary on the vision of Ezekiel, also printed with the Arze Lebanon;
- Ẓofnat Pa'aneaḥ, commentary on the Haggadah (ib. 1600 [?]);
- Sodot ha-Miṣwot, a kabbalistic explanation of the 613 commandments;
- Iggeret, kabbalistic essays (Feṙrara, 1556);
- Teshubot, responsa;
- Sha'ar Meshalim, a kabbalistic essay in 138 paragraphs;
- Oṣar ha-Kavod, according to Jellinek, the same as the Sodot ha-Miẓwot, a commentary on Song of Songs.
- Hassagot (unpublished) consists of strictures on al-Ḥarizi's translation, in which he corrects many mistakes and sometimes differs from Maimonides. It seems that he wrote the Hassagot at the beginning of his literary career when he was more of a philosopher and less of a mystic.
- Sod HaNahash, kabbalistic revelations of the divine serpent
- Jellinek thinks that Gikatilla composed a kabbalistic treatise entitled Hekalot of the same character as the Pirqe Hekalot.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- Adolf Jellinek, Beiträge zur Gesch. der Kabbala, ii.61 et seq.;
- Zunz, Additamenta (to the catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts in Leipzig), pp. 320–321;
- Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. section ii, part 31, pp. 76–80;
- S. Sachs, in Ha-Yonah, p. 80;
- M. H. Landauer, in Litteraturblatt des Orients, vi.227-228;
- Eliakim Carmoly, Itinéraires, p. 276;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., pp. 194, 198;
- Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1461–1470.
References
- See an adaptation and translation of Ginnat Egoz entitled HaShem Is One, by The Neirot Foundation, 2020.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Gikatilla, Joseph b. Abraham". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.- Thorough analysis of Gikatilla's thought has been presented in: Elke Morlok "Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla's Hermeneutics", Mohr Siebeck 2010
- See also: Federico Dal Bo, Emanation and Philosophy of Language. An Introduction to Joseph ben Abraham Giqatilla, Los Angeles, Cherub Press, 2019.
Notes
- ^ Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla British Museum
- ^ Portae Lucis 1516 Scribd
- ^ The Rishonim, Artscroll History Series, P. 98
- ^ Sha'are Orah, Yerucham Becker edition, Jerusalem 2008
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ According to the commentary of Mattithiah ben Solomon Delacrut
- ^ Gikatilla's Introduction
- ^ English according to the 1917 JPS Bible which is now in the public domain
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