RIMON (Granat), JOSEPH ẒEVI

RIMON (Granat ), JOSEPH ẒEVI (1889–1958), Hebrew poet. Born in Poland, he was educated in the yeshivot of Lida and Warsaw and came under the influence of Hillel *Zeitlin. He immigrated to Palestine in 1909, and served as secretary of Kolel Varsha ("the Warsaw community"). As a result of his association with members of the Second Aliyah, especially J.Ḥ. *Brenner and A.S. *Rabinovitz, he worked on the newspapers of the labor movement, Ha-Po'el ha-Ẓa'ir and Ha-Aḥdut. He became a teacher in the religious school Taḥkemoni in Jaffa and worked as a librarian in Haifa. During World War i, he taught in Petaḥ Tikvah. In 1921, after being savagely mutilated by rioting Arabs, he secluded himself in the Ari Synagogue in Safed for many years, delving deeply into the study of the Kabbalah and of the Zohar. In 1939, he returned to Tel Aviv and his family. His first poem appeared in 1908 in Ha-Peraḥim, the weekly of lsrael Benjamin *Levner. After his immigration to Palestine, he published his poems in most of the Palestinian newspapers. His volumes of poetry include: Leket Shirim (1910), Devir (1913), Ba-Maḥazeh (1916) and Ketarim (1944). Rimon's poetry is religious in quality and has established for itself a unique place in modern Hebrew literature. The sole ambition of the poet, apparently, was to know God by the aid of asceticism and abstinence from the world of the senses, and by immersing himself in the depths of his inner being. His book, Aẓei Ḥayyim, essays on outstanding Jewish leaders, appeared in two volumes in Jerusalem (1946, 1950).

bibliography:

M. Farbridge, English Literature and the Hebrew Renaissance (1953), 90; R. Wallenrod, Literature of Modern lsrael (1956), 199–201; S. Halkin, Modern Hebrew Literature (1950), 184, 190; Rabinowitz and Kariv, in: J. Rimon, Ketarim (1944), 730 (intro.); D. Sadan, Avnei Boḥan (1951), 116–29; idem, Bein Din le-Ḥeshbon (1963), 78–85; Rabbi Binyamin, Mishpeḥot Soferim (1960), 162–8. add. bibliography: Z. Luz, "Iyyun bi-Ketarim le-Y.Z. Rimon," in: Bikkoret u-Farshanut, 2–3 (1973), 72–79; P.H. Peli, "Y.Z. Rimon, Meshorer Dati be-Doro," in: Moznayim, 36 (1973), 327–336; D. Ider, "Mitaḥat u-Me'ever li-Gderot: Iyyun bi-Yẓiratam shel Y.Z. Rimon ve-Admiel Kosman," in: Tarbut Yehudit be-Ein ha-Se'arah (2002), 711–41; idem, "Yeḥidi be-Derekh ha-Melekh shel Pardesim": Iyyun Sifruti-Kabbali ba-Po'emot 'Eḥad' ve-'Ha-Levanah ha-Metah' le-Y.Z. Rimon," in: Kabbalah, 11 (2004), 301–68.

[Yonah David]