Kimḥi, Mordecai
KIMḤI, MORDECAI
KIMḤI, MORDECAI (second half of 13th century), a Provençal rabbi and halakhic authority of Carpentras, grandson of David *Kimḥi. Urbach's opinion that he was the maternal grandfather of *Perez b. Elijah cannot be accepted since Mordecai was an older contemporary of Solomon b. Abraham *Adret, and around 1305 wrote a moderate and tolerant responsum in reply to *Abba Mari b. Moses' request for his opinion on the ban on the study of philosophy (Abba Mari b. Moses, Minḥat Kena'ot, no. 9), whereas Perez had died some 10 years earlier. Various collections of his responsa are extant, one of which was published by A. Sofer in Teshuvot Ḥakhmei Provinẓyah (1967). His son, isaac (or Maistre Petit de Nions, as he was known in French), also a well-known scholar, appears to have lived in Narbonne, and it is possible that he married there into the family of *David b. Levi, author of Sefer ha-Mikhtam, since he refers to him as "my relation." Isaac was in close correspondence with Solomon b. Abraham Adret, many of whose responsa are addressed to him. A collection of his responsa was published together with those of his father in the above-mentioned work. Isaac also wrote commentaries, novellae, and halakhic rulings on most of the Talmud and on other branches of scholarship (Isaac de Lattes, Sha'arei Ẓiyyon, ed. by S. Buber (1885), 47), and one of his responsa was published with those of Isaac de Lattes (1860). Six of his azharot for the afternoon service of the Feast of Shavuot appear in the Maḥzor Carpentras (ed. Amsterdam, 1759).
bibliography:
Gross, Gal Jud, 607–8, no. 3; Landshuth, Ammudei, 124; A. Sofer (ed.), Teshuvot Ḥ akhmei Provinẓyah (1967), xxiv (introd.); Neubauer, in: rej, 12 (1886), 80–91; I. Lévi, ibid., 38 (1899), 103–22; 39 (1899), 76–84, 226–41; Poznański, ibid., 40 (1900), 91–94; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 423, index, s.v.Yiẓḥak Kimḥi (ben Mordekhai); Urbach, Tosafot, 451; Zunz, Lit Poesie, 505; Zunz, Gesch, 466; L. Zunz, in: awjd, 3 (1839), 679ff.; Frankl, in: mgwj, 33 (1884), 556–7.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]