Tzadikim

Biography

Rav Nissim studied at the Kairouan yeshiva, initially under his father - Jacob ben Nissim ("Rav Yaakov Gaon") who had studied under Hai Gaon - and then under Chushiel, whom he succeeded as head of the Yeshiva. Nissim himself later became head of the yeshiva; in this capacity he is closely associated with Chananel son of Chushiel. His most famous student is probably Isaac Alfasi (the "Rif"). Rav Nissim maintained an active correspondence with Hai Gaon and with Shmuel Hanaggid, whose son Joseph married Nissim's only daughter (1049 CE)

Works

The commentary Sefer Mafteach Man'ulei Hatalmud (Hebrew: "The book of the key to the Talmud"; often, simply ha-Mafteach, (The Key), linked here) is essentially a Talmudic cross-reference. In it Rav Nissim identifies the sources for Mishnaic quotes, identifying obscure allusions to other places in Talmudic literature. He quotes from the Tosefta, Mekhilta, Sifre, Sifra, and from the Jerusalem Talmud, the explanations of which he sometimes prefers to those of the Babylonian Talmud. Nissim did not confine himself to quoting references, he also discusses these in connection with the text; this work is thus also a commentary. The work was written on several tractates, and is printed, in many editions, on the page itself.

Rabbi Nissim Gaon also wrote other works, some of which have been lost, but which are quoted by later sages:

"Siddur Tefillah", a siddur (prayerbook)
A commentary on the Torah (now lost)
A "Sefer ha-Mitzvot" on the commandments (now lost)
"Hilkhot Lulav" a polemic against the Karaites (now lost)
"Megillat Setarim": a collection of notes concerning halakhic decisions, explanations, and midrashim, primarily a note-book for the author's private use, and published by his pupils probably not until after his death.
A collection of tales, "Sefer Ma'asiyyot ha-Hakhamim wehu Ḥibbur Yafeh meha-Yeshu'ah": about sixty tales, based upon the Mishnah, Baraita, the two Talmuds, and the midrashic writings; and written at the request of Nissim's father-in-law, Dunash, on the loss of his son. This is translated into English as "An Elegant Compilation concerning Relief after Adversity" (Bibliography, below)
Literary portrayals
R. Nissim appears as a character in A Delightful Compendium of Consolation: A Fabulous Tale of Romance, Adventure and Faith in the Medieval Mediterranean, a novel by Burton Visotzky. The novel expands on the few known biographical facts (including the marriage of his daughter). Its title, A Delightful Compendium, derives from "Ḥibbur Yafeh".

Nissim ben Jacob By: Wilhelm Bacher, Max Schloessinger

African Talmud exegete and moralist; lived during the first half of the eleventh century in Kairwan. He received his early instruction from his father, Jacob ben Nissim, president of the yeshibah of Kairwan. After Ḥushiel ben Elhanan's arrival in Kairwan, Nissim continued his studies under that teacher, and at Ḥushiel's death succeeded him in the presidency of the yeshibah. Much as he gained from these teachers he seems to have gained more by his literary intercourse on halakic questions with Hai ben Sherira, gaon of Sura (comp. Harkavy, "Teshubot ha-Ge'onim," p. 361; Abraham ibn Daud, "Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah," in Neubauer, "M. J. C." i. 73). Nissim acted as an intermediary between this gaon and Samuel ha-Nagid of Granada, sending the former's halakic correspondence to Samuel. He thus deserves credit for helping to transplant Talmudical knowledge from Babylonia to Spain. Nissim, being a poor man, received considerable support from Samuel ha-Nagid, whose son Joseph married Nissim's only daughter. The bride, according to Abraham ibn Daud (l.c.), was very learned and pious, but physically deformed. After the unfortunate death of her husband in Granada (1066), she fled to Lucena, where the Jewish congregation provided for her most generously.

Nissim was the author of the following works:

His Writings.

• (1) "Kitab Miftaḥ Maghaliḳ al-Talmud" (in Hebrew, "Sefer Mafteaḥ Man'ule ha-Talmud" = "Key to the Locks of the Talmud," in two parts). In this work Nissim aimed to meet the difficulties in the study of the Talmud, which for his contemporaries consisted chiefly in the fact that they were not so well versed therein as the ancient teachers. For the latter it was sufficient to refer by a short sentence to some passage of the Talmud, or to indicate briefly the outlines of a demonstration instead of developing it fully, because the ancient teacher was supposed to have studied the passage referred to in its proper place, and to bear it in mind all the time. For his contemporaries, however, teachers and pupils alike, Nissim found it necessary to give in extenso all the passages to which reference was made in a Talmudical treatise. This kind of "key" Nissim intended to extend to the whole Talmud, although it seems that he carried out his scheme with a few Talmudical treatises only (David of Estella, "Ḳiryat Sefer," in Neubauer, l.c. ii. 230). The "key" to Berakot, Shabbat, and 'Erubin has been published, according to an Italian manuscript (probably the same which Azulai said he had seen; comp. "Shem ha-Gedolim," ii. 33a), by Goldenthal (Vienna, 1847).

Talmudic Method.

Nissim did not confine himself to quoting references, but expounds them in their connection with the text; thus his work is at the same time a Talmudical commentary. He quotes from the Tosefta, Mekilta, Sifre, Sifra, from the old midrashim, and above all from the Palestinian Talmud, the explanations of which he sometimes prefers to those of the Babylonian Talmud. The second part of the "Mafteaḥ," divided by Nissim into fifty subdivisions, is intended to give a collection of halakot which in the Talmud are to be found in places where nobody would expect them. The enumeration of these fifty subdivisions is an important contribution to the methodology of the Talmud. The "Mafteaḥ" is written in a sort of mixed language, both Arabic and Hebrew being used as the character of the subject seemed to demand. It has been supposed that Nissim wrote this work about 1038 or 1040 (see "Orient, Lit." viii. 606).

• (2) "Megillat Setarim" (written in the same language as the "Mafteaḥ"), a collection of notes concerning halakic decisions, explanations, and midrashim, primarily a note-book for the author's private use, and published by his pupils probably not until after his death; hence the title, which means "Secret Scroll." Only a few fragments of it have been preserved. One has been published by A. Geiger in H. L. Heilberg's "Beiträge zur JüdischenLiteratur-Geschichte" (Hebrew part, pp. 16 et seq.); the last part of the published extract, however (pp. 17 et seq.), was taken from Abraham ibn Ezra's "Yesod Mora." Another, dealing with reward and punishment on earth and in the future world, is included in the "Sefer Ḥasidim" (ed. Wilna, Nos. 604-606; ed. Wistinetzki, Nos. 30-33). The responsum published by Harkavy in "Teshubot ha-Ge'onim" (p. 265, No. 539, Arabic; p. 339, No. 539, Hebrew) is probably a portion of the "Megillat Setarim."

Collection of Tales.

• (3) A collection of comforting tales, written at the request of Nissim's father-in-law, Dunash, who had lost a son. This small book, consisting of about sixty tales, is based upon the Mishnah, Baraita, the two Talmudim, and the midrashic writings. Some tales seem to have been taken from older collections now lost. The first to ascribe this compilation to Nissim was Rapoport, who declared it to have been written originally in Arabic and translated into Hebrew. Of the same opinion were Zunz, Steinschneider, Jellinek, and others; but Nissim's authorship as well as the ancient composition of the book has been often contested, recently again by I. D. Margoliouth (in "J. Q. R." xiii. 158). Harkavy found an Arabic manuscript, the original of Nissim ben Jacob's compilation (partly published in the "Steinschneider Festschrift," Hebrew part, pp. 9-26). The Arabic title of this work probably was "Kitab Akhbar al-'Ulama wa-huwa Ta'lif Ḥasan fi al-Faraj"; in Hebrew, "Sefer Ma'asiyyot ha-Ḥakamim wehu Ḥibbur Yafeh meha-Yeshu'ah." The book is divided into thirty-four paragraphs. It seems that many of them are either wanting entirely in the Hebrew translation, or are shortened and changed. Zunz thought that the "Sefer Ma'asiyyot" was written about 1030; but, as the "Mafteaḥ" is quoted in it under the Arabic title given above, Harkavy is of the opinion that Nissim composed or wrote it about 1050, at the end of his life (see l.c. p. 22).There exist two anonymous Hebrew compilations of this little work: (a) "Ḥibbur Yafeh meha-Yeshu'ah" (Ferrara, 1557; Amsterdam, 1746 et seq., ed. Israel David Miller, Warsaw, 1886). Some parts of it are given also in the collective work. "'Oseh Fele" (pp. 128, 357 et seq., Leghorn, 1870), and in Jellinek ("B. H." v. 131). (b) "Ma'asiyyot sheba-Talmud" (Constantinople, 1519); or "Midrashot u-Ma'asiyyot sheba-Talmud" (Venice, 1544). A German translation entitled "R. Nissim's Legendenschatz," etc., has been published by A. Löwy (Vienna, 1882). It is remarkable with how much freedom Nissim treated his subject by choosing the form of dialogue (see Harkavy, l.c. p. 26).

His "Siddur."

• (4) "Siddur ha-Tefillah," quoted by old rabbinic authorities. Both Rapoport and Zunz have no doubt as regards Nissim's authorship of this "Siddur." Steinschneider, however, doubts its genuineness. There exists a confession of sin ("widdui"), ascribed to R. Nissim, which is recited according to the Sephardic ritual in the morning prayer on the Day of Atonement, and according to the German ritual on the lesser Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur Ḳaṭan). This confession is supposed by Rapoport to have been copied from Nissim's "Siddur"; but the fact that in the "Siddur" of R. Amram (ed. Warsaw, 1865, ii. 45a) it is ascribed to "Nissim Rosh Yeshibah of Babylon" gave reason for believing that another Nissim was its author (see Weiss, "Dor," iv. 267). Harkavy, in fact, in an old Arabic commentary on Jeremiah found a quotation from the widdui of Nissim Naharwani. This man is supposed to have been the blind Babylonian "rosh kallah" whom the exilarch David ben Zakkai tried in vain to appoint gaon. The quotation from the widdui which Harkavy found in the Arabic Jeremiah commentary occurs again with slight changes in the widdui of the German ritual ascribed to Nissim. Thus it seems that Nissim ben Jacob was not the author of the widdui, but Nisi Naharwani, who may be the same as Nissim Nahoraini, a widdui by whom was discovered by E. N. Adler (see "J. Q. R." xiii. 99; comp. Steinschneider, "Introduction to Arabic Literature," ib. xiii. 199).
• (5) Commentary on the Pentateuch, of which two quotations only have been preserved ("Pa'neaḥ Raza" on Beha'aloteka; Abraham ibn Ezra on Ex. xxxiv. 6). As these two quotations may have been taken equally well from the "Megillat Setarim," the existence of a commentary on the Pentateuch by Nissim thus appears very doubtful.
• (6) A "Sefer ha-Miẓwot" of Nissim Gaon cited by Berechiah ha-Naḳdan in his "Maẓref" (ch. v. beginning; see Benjacob, "Oẓar ha-Sefarim," p. 362, No. 2032).
• (7) "Hilkot Lulab," quoted in the "Sefer Ma'asiyyot" (see Harkavy in the "Steinschneider Festschrift," p. 24, No. 1), which seems to have been a polemic against the Karaites. This work and the preceding one are known only by these two quotations.

Nissim had a method of his own for the study of the Talmud, using very largely the Palestinian Talmud, which hitherto had been generally neglected. This was probably due to the teaching of Ḥushiel ben Elhanan. He followed the method of Saadia Gaon in defending the anthropomorphisms of the Haggadah against the attacks of the Karaites. While not denying the reality of the miracles recounted in the Haggadah, he by giving symbolic interpretations to them tried to justify them in the same way as the Karaites themselves did with the miraculous stories of the Bible.

Nissim had numerous pupils, some of whom came from Spain, and spread there his teaching and authority; so that he was honored with the title "gaon." There is, however, only one man of importance, the author Ibn al-Jasum, or, as Rapoport reads, Ibn al-Jasus, of whom it can be said with certainty that he was Nissim's pupil. Ibn al-Jasus wrote a work on prayers; but whether it was in Arabic, and whether, as has been suggested, it consisted of a commentary upon and of additions to his teacher's "Siddur," can not be ascertained (Rapoport, "Toledot R. Nissim," note 29; Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 2069; idem, in "J. Q. R." x. 514, No. 411). It is an old error to believe that Alfasi was one of Nissim's pupils; the passage in Abraham ibn Daud's "Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah" (l.c.) which seems to say so is to be taken, according to Rapoport, as meaning that Alfasi used Nissim's works.

By: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

NISSIM BEN JACOB BEN NISSIM IBN SHAHIN (c. 990–1062), together with *Hananel b. Ḥushi'el, the outstanding leader and talmudist of North Africa. His father headed a bet ha-midrash in Kairouan and was the representative of the academies of *Sura and *Pumbedita for the whole of North Africa. Little is known of Nissim's personal history. It is known that he, too, was head of an academy in Kairouan and maintained close ties with the academy of Pumbedita. After the death or Hananel, he was appointed by the Babylonian academies Rosh bei-Rabbanan ("Head of the College") in his stead. There were close ties between Nissim and *Samuel ha-Nagid. Samuel supported Nissim financially and Nissim served as the principal channel for Samuel's knowledge of Babylonian teachings, particularly those of Hai Gaon. When one of Nissim's sons died in childhood, Samuel composed a poem in consolation for the bereaved father. Nissim's daughter married Joseph *ha-Nagid, Samuel's son, and on that occasion Nissim visited Granada and taught there. According to Abraham *Ibn Daud, Solomon ibn *Gabirol was among those who heard his lectures. Nissim's teachers were his father, *Ḥushi'el, and possibly also the latter's son Hananel, whose teachings reveal a close affinity with that of Nissim. Nissim obtained a great part of his halakhic tradition from Hai Gaon, with whom he corresponded. Noteworthy among his pupils is Ibn Gasom, the author of a book on the laws of prayer (see Assaf. bibl.).

Nissim was a prolific and versatile writer. Five works of great length and value are known to have been written by him:

(1) Sefer Mafte'aḥ Manulei ha-Talmud (Vienna, 1847) on the tractates Berakhot, Shabbat, and Eruvin was first published from an early Hebrew translation and then included in the Romm (Vilna) editions of the Talmud. Subsequently, many fragments of the Arabic original were published. It is a reference book for quotations encountered in the course of talmudic study. It also gives the sources of the beraitot and mishnayot quoted in the Talmud as well as parallels in the Talmud and Midrashim and includes extensive commentaries on many talmudic themes. Only the sections on the orders Zera'im (Berakhot), Mo'ed, and Nashim are extant but it is probable that theoriginal scope of the work was greater.

(2) Commentaries on a few tractates of the Talmud, apparently written in Hebrew. Only a few fragments from several tractates are extant.

(3) Halakhic rulings. A few fragments of what was evidently a comprehensive work are extant.

(4) Megillat Setarim (completed in 1051 at the latest). This work was very well known among the *rishonim, Sephardim as well as Ashkenazim. It was written for the most part in scholarly terms. The book contains many variegated, unrelated topics on all subjects coming within the range of interest of the scholars of the generation–beliefs and opinions, scriptural exegesis, religious polemics, explanations of passages in the Talmud and Midrashim in halakhah and aggadah, responsa on various subjects, customs and their sources, and other matters. This characteristic aspect of the book, as well as its bilingual construction (Hebrew and Arabic), which resulted in its division into two works even during the author's lifetime, led copyists in different places to arrange it in different orders according to their needs and interest, and in consequence to vary the numeration of its passages. Various compilations were made of the work, which were occasionally drawn upon by other authors such as Jacob *Tam whose Sefer ha-Yashar includes a number of rulings from it. The halakhic compendium Sefer ha-Pardes (written by *Rashi's school) may also have drawn upon it. Although the work is no longer extant, the discovery in the *Genizah of a subject index contained in the indexer's copy (published by S. Assaf, Tarbiz, 11 (1940), 229–59) has made knowledge of its contents far more precise. The book exercised a great influence upon the major halakhists of subsequent generations, including Isaac *Alfasi, *Maimonides, *Nathan b. Jehiel of Rome, *Abraham b. Nathan ha-Yarhi, and *Isaac b. Abba Mari.

(5) Ḥibbur me-haYeshu'ah (Ferrara, 1557), Nissim's best-known work, is a collection of Hebrew stories and folktales taken from early sources. It is designed to strengthen belief, faith, and morality among the people and to raise their spirit. This work, possibly the first prose storybook in medieval Hebrew literature, paved the way for Hebrew belletristic literature as a literary genre. Tradition has it that Nissim dedicated the book to his father-in-law, Dunash, who is otherwise unknown, to console him in his mourning. The first printed edition was published from an early Hebrew translation, and the Arabic text was published by J. Obermann (see bibl.). The Hebrew version has been frequently republished, not always according to the same translation. A new Hebrew translation, together with critical annotations by H.Z. Hirschberg, was published in 1954. Additional Arabic texts have been published by S. Abramson (see bibl.). The work circulated widely even before its first printing, and had a great influence on similar story collections. Ma'asiyyot she-ba-Talmud (Constantinople, 1519) was based upon it, and the Ḥibbur ha-Ma'asiyyot (ibid., 1519) is an anthology of its stories. Many of the stories included by Gaster in his The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924; 1968²) were taken from it.

Although some other works have been ascribed to Nissim on the basis of various quotations, it may be assumed that all these are from the works already referred to. This may not apply to his many responsa, which are recorded in the works of rishonim, though these too may have been included in his Megillat Setarim. Most of Nissim's works found in the genizah are undergoing the process of identification and publication. S. Abramson devoted the labors of a lifetime to the collection of Nissim's work from the genizah, from manuscripts, and from printed works, and published a monumental work.

May the merit of the tzadik Rabbi Nissim ben Jacob protect us all. Amen