Yonah Gerondi

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Title page from Sefer Shaarei Teshuvah (1960 pocket edition) by Yonah Gerondi (d. 1263), first published in 1505.

Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi (

Nahmanides. He is most famous for his ethical work The Gates of Repentance (Hebrew
: שערי תשובה).

Solomon of Montpellier
יוֹנָה גִירוֹנְדִי‎
רשב״א
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  Students

Biography

Much of what is known about his life comes from a responsum by Solomon ben Simon Duran, one of his descendants.[2]

Jonah Gerondi came from

Jewish doctrine, and publicly admitted in the synagogue of Montpellier
that he had been wrong in all his acts against the works and fame of Maimonides.

As an act of repentance he vowed to travel to Israel and prostrate himself on Maimonides' grave and implore his pardon in the presence of ten men for seven consecutive days. He left France with that intention, but was detained, first in Barcelona and later in Toledo. He remained in Toledo, and became one of the great Talmudical teachers of his time. In all his lectures he made a point of quoting from Maimonides, always mentioning his name with great reverence. Gerondi's sudden death from a rare disease was considered by many as a penalty for not having carried out the plan of his journey to the grave of Maimonides. However, some believe this was only a myth created by the followers of Maimonides.[4] He died in Toledo in the Kingdom of Castile in November 1263. The text of his tombstone was later transcribed by Samuel David Luzzatto,[5] with the month and possibly the day of his death being readable.

Works

Gerondi left many works, of which only a few have been preserved. The Ḥiddushim to

Pentateuch
), exists in manuscript. Among other minor unpublished works known to be his are Megillat Sefarim, Hilkot Ḥanukkah and Hilkot Yom Kippur.

The fame of Gerondi chiefly rests on his moral and

Orthodox Jewish scholars. Sefer ha-Yir'ah was published as early as 1490, as an appendix to Yeshu'ah ben Joseph's Halikot 'Olam.[8] The Sha'arei Teshuvah first appeared in Fano (1505) with the Sefer ha-Yirah, while the Iggeret ha-Teshuvah was first published in Kraków (1586). All have been reprinted many times, separately and together, as well as numerous extracts from them; they have also been translated into Yiddish, Italian and English. A part of the Iggeret ha-Teshuvah (sermon 3) first appeared, under the name Dat ha-Nashim, in Solomon Alami's Iggeret Musar.[9] For an estimate of Gerondi's ethical works and his partial indebtedness to the Sefer Hasidim see Zur Geschichte der Jüdisch-Ethischen Literatur des Mittelalters.[10] He is also supposed to be mentioned, under the name of "R. Jonah," five times in the Tosafot.[11]

References

  1. anno mundi
    .
  2. ^ Responsum 291, Solomon ben Simon Duran
  3. H. Grätz
    , Geschichte, vol. vii.
  4. ^ גירונדי יונה. Jewish Encyclopedia Daat (in Hebrew). Herzog College. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  5. ^ Avnei Zikaron (Prague 1841), 17
  6. ^ Shem ha-Gedolim, p. 75, Vilna, 1852
  7. Benjacob
    , Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 422
  8. ^ See Joseph Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 783.
  9. Benjacob
    , l.c. p. 123.
  10. ^ In Brüll's Jahrb. v.-vi. 83 et seq.
  11. Nedarim 82b, 84a; see Zunz
    , Z. G. p. 52, Berlin, 1845.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Solomon Schechter and Peter Wiernik (1901–1906). "GERONDI, JONAH B. ABRAHAM (HEḤASID), THE ELDER". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:

  • Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 5859;
  • Zevi Hirsch Edelmann
    , Hemdah Genuzah, No. 6 (letters of R. Hillel of Verona), Königsberg, 1856;
  • Heinrich Grätz
    , Gesch. vol. vii., Index;
  • Julius Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 327–328;
  • David Conforte, Kore ha-Dorot, pp. 37–38, Berlin, 1845;
  • Azulai
    , Shem ha-Gedolim, ed. Benjacob, pp. 75–76;
  • Gustav Karpeles, Gesch. der Jüdischen Literatur, pp. 621 et seq.;
  • Winter and Wünsche, Jüdische Literatur, ii. 425–426, Treves, 1894;
  • Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 448–449, Warsaw, 1886;
  • Heimann Joseph Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 1038, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1891
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