Joseph Kimhi, Qimḥi, or Kimchi (1105–1170) (Hebrew: יוסף קמחי) was a medieval Jewish rabbi and biblical commentator.
He was the father of Moses and David Kimhi, and the teacher of Rabbi Menachem Ben Simeon and poet Joseph Zabara.
Forced to leave his native country owing to the religious persecutions of the Almohades, who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1146, he settled in Narbonne, Provence, where he spent the rest of his life.
The foundation of his work is a literal reading of the Masoretic Text ("𝕸") and its grammatical analysis, interspersed with contemporary philosophical musings.
In fact, Kimhi participated in several public debates with Catholic clergy, in which he highlighted his own method of reading biblical texts.
Although ibn Ezra was Kimhi's superior in knowledge, the latter can rightly claim to have been the first successful transplanter of Judeo-Arabic science in the soil of Christian Europe.
His diction is elegant and lucid, the disposition of his material scientific, his treatment of his subject even and without digressions; so that his works are much better adapted for study than those of Ibn Ezra, which lack all these qualifications.
Another famous contemporary of Kimhi was Jacob ibn Meïr, called Rabbeinu Tam, of Ramerupt, who was the greatest Talmudic authority of the day.
His fears were realized; Benjamin of Canterbury, a pupil of Rabbeinu Tam, made observations on the Sefer ha-Galui, defending his teacher.
1887) he is dependent on Judah ben David Hayyuj for the treatment of his subject, but in his explanations of words he relies mainly on Jonah ibn Janah.
In the far more ample Sefer Ha-Galuy, "Book of Demonstration" Kimhi attacked the philological work of the greatest French Talmud scholar of that day, Rabbeinu Tam, who espoused the antiquated system of Menahem ben Saruq, and this he supplemented by an independent critique of Menaḥem.
[2] A fragment of his commentary on the Book of Job was published by Israel Schwarz in his Tiqwat Enosh (Berlin, 1868); the remaining portions, by Simon Eppenstein in Revue des Études Juives xxxvii.
This work was written at the request of one of his pupils who wished to have a collection of all the prophetic passages in Scripture that might serve as aids in refuting those persons who denied the Torah.
Their children are educated in the fear of God; their women are chaste; the Jews are hospitable toward one another, perform works of charity, and redeem captives—all virtues which are not found in such a high degree among non-Jews.