Ḥayyun, Joseph ben Abraham
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.