Bahya ben Asher

Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa (בחיי בן אשר אבן חלואה‎‎, 1255–1340) was a rabbi and scholar of Judaism, best known as a commentator on the Hebrew Bible.

The commentary on the Torah - "מדרש רבינו בחיי על התורה " - enjoyed much favor, as attested to by the numerous supercommentaries published on it (not less than ten are enumerated by Bernstein (Monatsschrift xviii.

Furthermore, by the questions that are frequently raised the reader is compelled to take part in the author's mental processes; the danger of monotony being also thereby removed.

In preparing his commentary "he thoroughly investigated" the works of former biblical exegetes, using all the methods employed by them in his interpretations; although Rabbi Bahya also availed himself of non-Jewish sources.

It consists of sixty chapters, alphabetically arranged, containing discourses and dissertations on the requirements of religion and morality, as well as Jewish ritual practices.

[citation needed] One book ostensibly written by Bahya, edited by M. Homburg under the title of Soba Semakhot ("Fulness of Joy"), as being a commentary on the Book of Job, is actually a compilation made by a later editor from two of Bahye's actual works, Kad ha-Kemah (Constantinople, 1515) and Shulhan shel Arba (Mantua, 1514).