Ḥayyun, Joseph ben Abraham

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ḤAYYUN, JOSEPH BEN ABRAHAM

ḤAYYUN, JOSEPH Ben ABRAHAM (d. 1497), last rabbi of the Jewish community of Lisbon before the expulsion. Among his distinguished disciples were Abraham b. Nissim *Ḥayyun and Joseph *Jabez. While Ḥayyun was still in Lisbon, Isaac *Abrabanel consulted him on various halakhic questions, concerning one of which he composed a tract, Maggid Mishneh. After the decree of expulsion from Portugal was issued in 1496, Ḥayyun went to Constantinople, where he died shortly afterward. His published works are a commentary on the Book of Psalms (Salonika, 1523), and Millei de-Avot, a commentary on Avot (Constantinople, 1578; republ. Venice, 1606); a number of his notes on the order of the haftarot are included in Likkutei Man (Amsterdam, 1764). Other works remain in manuscript.

bibliography:

Benjacob, Oẓar, 324 no. 1106, 641 no. 380; Ben-Sasson, in: Sefer Yovel le-Y. Baer (1960), 217ff., 220; idem, in: Zion, 28 (1961), 56ff., 60; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Kushta (1967), 128.

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Ḥayyun, Joseph ben Abraham

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