Joseph Kimhi

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.

Grammarian, exegete, poet, and translator; born in southern Spain about 1105; died about 1170. 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 Hachmei Provence were under the considerable influence of the neighboring Spanish Jewish community to the south at the time.

Kimhi is known to have written commentaries on all the books of the Bible, though only fragments of his work have survived until today. The foundation of his work is a literal reading of the Masoretic Text ("𝕸") and its grammatical analysis, interspersed with contemporary philosophical musings. This reflects his opposition to a christological reading of the text, which highlights allegory. In fact, Kimhi participated in several public debates with Catholic clergy, in which he highlighted his own method of reading biblical texts. His opposition to the contemporary Christian reading can be found in his Book of the Covenant (Hebrew: ספר הברית).

His son David, though but a child at the time of his father's death, may also be considered one of his pupils, either directly through his works, or indirectly through the instruction David received from his elder brother Moses.

Abraham ibn Ezra, who in his wanderings visited Narbonne in 1160, may have possibly met Joseph. The latter followed Ibn Ezra in some particulars, e.g., in the use of the stem שמר for the paradigm of the verb. Both scholars worked at the same time and along the same lines to popularize Judeo-Arabic science among the Jews of Christian Europe by excerpting from and translating Arabic works. 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.^{[neutrality is disputed][citation needed]}

Another famous contemporary of Kimhi was Jacob ibn Meïr, called Rabbeinu Tam, of Ramerupt, who was the greatest Talmudic authority of the day. This scholar, wishing to settle the literary quarrel between the followers of Menahem ben Saruq and of Dunash ben Labraṭ, had written a book of decisions (הכרעות hakhraʻot), in which he took the part of Menahem. These decisions did not satisfy Kimhi. Feeling himself better able than Rabbeinu Tam to pass judgment in the case, he wrote the Sefer ha-Galui in 1165.

This work falls into two parts: the first treats the differences between Menahem and Dunash; the second contains independent criticisms on the former's dictionary. In the introduction, Kimhi apologizes for daring to come forward against so eminent a man as the leading Talmudic authority of his time. Hearing that the ignorant among the people will attack him on that account, he puts into their mouths the words which Abner, the captain of Saul, spoke, when David cried out to the king: "Who art thou that criest to the king?" ('I Sam. 26,14').

His fears were realized; Benjamin of Canterbury, a pupil of Rabbeinu Tam, made observations on the Sefer ha-Galui, defending his teacher. He also called Kimhi in a contemptuous sense HaQore "The Crier" because the latter ventured to cry his contradictions to the "king," i.e., Rabbeinu Tam.