Abraham ben David

Abraham ben David (c. 1125 – 27 November 1198),[1] also known by the abbreviation RABaD (for Rabbeinu Abraham ben David) Ravad or RABaD III, was a Provençal rabbi, an important commentator on the Talmud, Sefer Halachot of Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi (known by the abbreviation RIF) and Mishne Torah of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father of Kabbalah and one of the key links in the chain of Jewish mystics.

R' Moses ben Judah[4] refers to the rabbinical school of Nîmes, then under RABaD's direction, as the chief seat of Talmudic learning in Provence.

In 1991, Rabbi Yosef Qafih published a compendium of his responsa which he gleaned from various sources, forty-two of which derived from handwritten manuscripts in his possession.

This was not due to any personal ill-feeling, but rather a result of the radical differences of view in matters of faith between the two greatest Talmudists of the twelfth century.

Maimonides aimed to bring order to the vast labyrinth of Halakha by presenting final results in a definite, systematic and methodical manner.

A legal code that did not state the sources and authorities from which its decisions were derived, and offered no proof of the correctness of its statements, was (in Raavad's opinion) entirely unreliable for practical rulings, for which purpose Maimonides had specifically designed it.

If Maimonides had intended to stem the further development of Talmud study by reducing it to the form of a code, Raavad felt it his duty to oppose such an attempt, as contrary to the free spirit of rabbinical Judaism, which refuses to surrender blindly to authority.

Raavad was thus an opponent to the codification of the Halakha; but he was even more strongly opposed to the construction of a system of dogmas in Judaism, particularly according to the method followed by Maimonides, who often set up the concepts of the Aristotelian philosophy as Jewish theology.

Here Raavad was not content with ruling Eliezer's and Jonathan's actions to have been permitted, but he declared that Maimonides deserved to be stricken with the Pulsa diNura, similar to a junior rabbi who had misrepresented the opinion of Levi ben Sisi.

[12] Abraham Zacuto recorded an anecdote whereby he claims that Rambam, during his lifetime, eventually conceded to the correctness of his disputant, the Ravad, saying of him, "In all my life, no one has ever beaten me, except a certain artisan.

"[13] Many Kabbalists view the Ravad as one of the fathers of their system, and this is true to the extent that he was inclined to mysticism, which led him to follow an ascetic mode of life and gained for him the title of "the pious."

[16] The Ravad is widely considered to be the source of the commonly used diagram of the Sephirot of the Tree of Life that was ultimately written down by his son Isaac the Blind.

Some of his works show acquaintance with philosophy; for instance, his remark on "Hilchot Teshuvah", 5, end, is a literal quotation from Honein ben Isaac's "Musre ha-Philosophim," pp.

Family records indicate they made their way to Spain, where they appeared in Toledo and Barcelona and were reputedly advisers in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella.

After the Expulsion, they were exiled to Italy, from whence they made their way to northern, and later to eastern, Europe, where they served as rabbis in Telšiai, Lithuania, and teachers in its Telshe yeshiva.