Abraham Farissol

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Iggeret Orhot Olam . Illustrated edition Prague 1793

Abraham ben Mordechai Farissol (* around 1451 in Avignon , † around 1525 in Ferrara ) was an Italian - Jewish scholar and copyist of the Renaissance of Provencal origin. His best-known work, a treatise on cosmography and geography Iggeret Orhot Olam ( Writing on the Ways of the World ) from 1524, first appeared in Hebrew in 1586 in Venice and in 1691 in Latin translation in Oxford .

life and work

Iggeret Orhot Olam , Venice edition 1586

Abraham Farissol was born in Avignon and immigrated to Italy at a young age for reasons unknown. He spent most of his life in Ferrara and Mantua . He worked as a cantor in the Jewish community of Ferrara and was known as a careful copyist of manuscripts. The Ferrara Jewish community chose him as their representative when it came to representing Judaism in a disputation with Dominicans and Minorites before the Duke of Ferrara .

Stomach Abraham

This experience influenced Farissol's work Magen Abraham ( Shield of Abraham ) from 1514, which was preserved as a manuscript and was intended to defend Judaism in disputes. The polemical writing, which is partly based on older writings, is divided into a chapter on Christianity and one on Islam . The book shows that Farissol had contact with both Judeo-Christian circles among Jews of Portuguese and Spanish origin, as well as Judaizing and anti-clerical Christians. Farissol saw the reformer Martin Luther as a possible crypro Jew .

Farissol's Declaration and Defense of Money Lending Against Interest is well known, in which he argues that in 16th century society there can be no difference between income from money transactions and other businesses.

Comments

Farissol wrote a short commentary on the Torah , Pirhei Shoshanim , a commentary on Ekklesiastes , both of which have survived as manuscripts, and a commentary on the Book of Job , which was printed in the Bomberg Bible of 1517.

Iggeret Orhot Olam

Prayer book for a woman, 1471

The most important and well-known work by Farissol is Iggeret Orhot Olam ( treatise on the ways of the world ). The book, first published in 1524 in Ferrara and 1586 in Venice, saw several editions and was translated into Latin in 1691. It is considered the first Hebrew geography work and was very popular. In thirty chapters it dealt with different countries and their Jewish settlement, the 14th chapter deals with the ten lost tribes of Israel , whose descendants he suspects to be in the B'nei Israel in India. From the introduction to this chapter it emerges that the investigation is connected with the appearance of the Messiah pretender David Reuveni in Italy in 1523, whose remarks are partially reproduced by Farissol. Farissol also described the newly discovered routes to Africa, Spain and America and, for the first time in a Hebrew book, the newly discovered America with a map.

Prayer book from 1471

The prayer book according to the Italian rite of 1471 was copied by Farissol as a commissioned work for the bride of an unknown client. Recently, special attention has been given to a blessing in morning prayer , in which God is thanked for “having created me as a woman, not as a man.” The blessing in today's prayer books used in Orthodox Judaism is: I. thank God for creating me as a man and not a woman, which many consider to be misogynistic. Instead, women thank God for creating them according to His will. The egalitarian formulation for women as recorded in the Farissol prayer book is unknown in contemporary Orthodox Judaism.

literature

Web links

Itinera mundi , Oxford edition 1691
Commons : Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Graetz: History of the Jews . tape 9 . Leipzig 1866, p. 42 ff ( zeno.org [accessed on March 19, 2012]).
  2. ↑ a b c d Farissol, Abraham ben Mordecai. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865934-3 , p. 717 (English). galegroup.com
  3. ^ Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson:  Disputations and Polemics. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865933-6 , pp. 694-695 (English). galegroup.com
  4. ^ Joseph Elijah Heller, B. Mordechai Ansbacher:  Luther, Martin. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 13, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865941-1 , pp. 271-272 (English). galegroup.com
  5. ^ Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson: History of the Jewish people. From the beginning to the present . CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55918-1 , p. 481 ( books.google.ch [accessed March 19, 2012]).
  6. ↑ ECJ:  Tribes, Lost Ten. In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906.
  7. ↑ Farissol, Abraham (1452 – c.1528). Iggeret Orhot Olam, in Hebrew. Retrieved March 19, 2012 (English).
  8. ↑ Aimee Neistat: Medieval battles siddur gender inequality via Jewish prayer. In: Haaretz. January 7, 2012, accessed March 19, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Farissol, Abraham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Farissol, Abraham ben Mordechai (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish author, Bible commentator and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1451
PLACE OF BIRTH Avignon
DATE OF DEATH around 1525
Place of death Ferrara