Solomon Adret

Solomon ben Abraham Adret , also Aderet , also called Raschba after his initials (* 1235 in Barcelona , † 1310 in Barcelona) was a Spanish rabbi and one of the most important Jewish scholars of his time.

life and work

His most important teacher was Jona ben Abraham Gerondi , whom he always referred to as "my teacher". He also studied with Nachmanides and was considered one of his most outstanding students.

As a young man, Adret was involved in numerous financial transactions, and the King of Aragon was among his debtors. After a few years he retired from business life and took the position of rabbi in Barcelona, ​​which he held for over 40 years. Before he was 40 years old, Adret was considered a leading figure in Spanish Judaism , and his expressions of opinion were respected well beyond the borders of Spain. Questions were brought to him from all parts of the Jewish world: from Germany , France , Bohemia , Sicily , Crete , Morocco , Algeria , Palestine and Portugal . Pedro III. von Aragón entrusted him with solving some complicated questions that had arisen between Jews from different communities. He wrote over 11,000 responses , many of which still exist in manuscript form.

In the course of the Maimonides dispute he occupied a middle position. In response to the extreme positions of representatives from the south of France, who wanted to completely ban the study of natural sciences and who proposed a corresponding ban up to the age of 30 in a letter to Adret, Adret announced in a ban letter on July 26, 1305 in Barcelona that the study of physics and metaphysics was permitted from the age of 25, all restrictions on the study of astronomy and medicine were lifted and the works of Maimonides could be read .

Adret was a bitter opponent of the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia . According to Gershom Scholem , Adret even launched an extermination campaign against Abulafia.

Adret was the head of a yeshiva whose students came from far away, from Germany and other countries. According to his own statement, there were valuable manuscripts of the Talmud in this yeshiva that were of Babylonian origin or had been controlled in the academies of Kairouan . His short stories on 17 treatises of the Talmud were published between the 16th and 20th centuries. Adret also wrote a book about the Aggadot , d. H. the legends from the Talmud, as well as two legal manuals.

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica . Volume 2, pp. 305-307.
• Angel Sáenz-Badillos; Judit Targarona Borrás: Diccionario de autores judios (Sefarad. Siglos X-XV). Estudios de Cultura Hebrea 10. Córdoba 1988, pp. 87-88.
• Gershom Scholem: Jewish mysticism in its main currents. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-27930-0 .

Web links

• From the life of German Jews in the Middle Ages ( Flash ; 287 kB)