Menachem Azariah da Fano

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Menahem Azariah da Fano

Menachem Asarja da Fano (born 1548 ; died August 5, 1620 in Mantua ), also called Immanuel da Fano , Hebrew acronym :רמ"ע Rama , was an Italian Kabbalist , rabbi, and Jewish scholar.

He came from the respected and wealthy Jewish-Italian family da Fano. He completed his first studies in Venice and later in Ferrara with Ishmael Ḥanina of Valmontone. Fano worked in various cities in Northern Italy. In Reggio nell'Emilia he was chairman of a yeshiva . From there he moved to Mantua, where he experienced the earthquake in 1570. In 1575 he was back in Venice. In Mantua he set up and directed another yeshiva and attracted students from all over Italy and Germany. He died here in 1620.

Da Fano is considered a leading exponent of the Kabbalism of Moses Cordovero . Under the influence of Israel Sarug , he later turned increasingly to the Lurian direction. He was one of the first to begin teaching Kabbalism publicly in Italy. He wrote numerous treatises on the subjects of Halacha and Kabbalah. Among them stand out Sefer 'asara ma'amarot (“Ten Treatises”) and his responses (published in Venice in 1600 and in Dyhernfurth in 1788 ). In addition, he was also active as a publisher. So he made possible u. a. the print of the Pardes Rimonim by Cordovero and the Kesef Mischne by Josef Karo . Amadeo Recanati dedicated his Italian translation of the Leader of the Undecided by Maimonides to him . His theological treatise Jonat Elem (printed in Amsterdam in 1648) received the following praise from the Kabbalistic scholar Isaiah Horowitz : "The overwhelming majority of his words, perhaps all of them, are true, and his Torah is true."

Literature (selection)

  • Alexander Altmann : [Comments on the development of Kabbalah with Rabbi Menachem Azariah from Fano] [Hebrew], in: J. Dan / J. Hacker (ed.): Sefer Yishayahu Tishby . Magnes, Jerusalem 1986.
  • Robert Bonfil: Halakhah, kabbalah and society. Some insights into Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano's inner world . In: Isadore Twersky, Bernard Septimus (Ed.): Jewish thought in the seventeenth century . Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1987, ISBN 0-674-47465-1 ( Harvard Judaic texts and studies 6), pp. 39-61.
  • Vers .: [New information about Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano and his time] [Heb.], In: E. Etkes / Y. Salmon (eds.): Perāqīm be-tōledōt hā-ḥebrāh haj-jehūdīt b-īmē-hab -bēnajim ū-ba-ʿēt ha-hadāšāh muqdāšīm le-Professor Jaʿaqōb Katz bi-mlēʾat lō šibʿīm we-ḥamēš šānāh ʿal-jedē talmīdāw we-ḥebrāw, Magnes, Jerusalem 1980, p. 98–135.
  • Ders .: Change in the Cultural Patterns of a Jewish Society in Crisis: Italian Jewry at the Close of the Sixteenth Century , in: Jewish History , 3/2 (1988), pp. 11-30.
  • Moshe Idel: Major Currents in Italian Kabbalah between 1560 and 1660 , in: Italia Judaica 2 (1986), pp. 243-262.
  • David Kaufmann : Menahem Azarya da Fano et sa famille , in: Revue des Études Juives (REJ) 35–36 (1915–1916), pp. 84–87, facsimiles .
  • Vers .: Menahem de Fano et les ouvrages de Moise Corduero et d'Isaac Louria , in: REJ (1898), pp. 108-111.
  • Vers .: Menahem Azaya de Fano , in: REJ (1900), pp. 113-118.
  • Ernst Müller, Article Menachem Asarja da Fano , in: Jüdisches Lexikon . Berlin 1927, Volume 2: A - C. , Sp. 587f.
  • Samuel Rosenblatt:  FANO, MENAHEM AZARIAH DA . In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865934-3 , p. 709 (English).
  • L. Woidislawski: Toledot Rabbi Menachem Asarja mi Fano , Petrikau 1904 (biography).
  • Salomon Wininger : Art. In: Große Jüdische National-Biographie , Vol. 2 (1927), Orient, Cernăuţi, pp. 221–222.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kaufmann 1915, 87.
  2. ↑ Kaufmann 1915, 85.
  3. ↑ The Jewish family name (da) Fano (from Fano (Marken) ) has been known in Italy since around 1400. See Attiko Milano, Moti Benmelech:  FANO, Italian family name. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865934-3 , p. 708.
  4. ^ Bonfil 1988.
  5. ↑ List in Y. Vidaslavsky: Toledot Rabbo Menahem Azariah de Fano , 1904, pp. 47–56.
  6. ↑ Manuscript in Strasbourg, # 3973. Only partially printed in Venice in 1597. Also in 2 volumes Frankfurt am Main 1698
  7. ^ Rosenblatt: Encyclopaedia Judaica , 2.
personal data
SURNAME Menachem Azariah da Fano
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Immanuel da Fano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Kabbalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1548
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1620
Place of death Mantua