Jewish philosophy includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern Haskalah and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism, thus organizing emergent ideas that are not necessarily Jewish into a uniquely Jewish scholastic framework and world-view. With their acceptance into modern society, Jews with secular educations embraced or developed entirely new philosophies to meet the demands of the world in which they now found themselves.
The golden age of Jewish culture in Spain was a Muslim ruled era of Spain, with the state name of Al-Andalus, lasting 800 years, whose state lasted from 711 to 1492 A.D. This coincides with the Islamic Golden Age within Muslim ruled territories, while Christian Europe experienced the Middle Ages.
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, Israel has had two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi.
Ibn Tibbon is a family of Jewish rabbis and translators that lived principally in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Jewish writers in England during the pre-expulsion period of the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries produced different kinds of writing in Hebrew. Many were Tosafists; others wrote legal material, and some wrote liturgical poetry and literary texts.
Rishonim were the leading rabbis and poskim who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the Shulchan Aruch and following the Geonim. Rabbinic scholars subsequent to the Shulchan Aruch are generally known as acharonim.
Jacob Berab, also spelled Berav or Bei-Rav, known as Mahari Beirav, was an influential rabbi and talmudist best known for his attempt to reintroduce classical semikhah (ordination).
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
The Benveniste family is an old, noble, wealthy, and scholarly Sephardic Jewish family of Narbonne, France, and northern Spain established in the 11th century. The family was present in the 11th to the 15th centuries in Hachmei Provence, France, Barcelona, Aragon, and Castile.
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was produced in many different parts of the world throughout the medieval and modern eras, while contemporary Hebrew literature is largely Israeli literature. In 1966, Agnon won the Nobel Prize for Literature for novels and short stories that employ a unique blend of biblical, Talmudic and modern Hebrew, making him the first Hebrew writer to receive this award.
Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature and rabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only rabbinic literature but also ethical literature, philosophical literature, mystical literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties. The production of Jewish literature has flowered with the modern emergence of secular Jewish culture. Modern Jewish literature has included Yiddish literature, Judeo-Tat literature, Ladino literature, Hebrew literature, and Jewish American literature.
David ben Solomon ibn (Abi) Zimra (1479–1573) also called Radbaz (רַדְבָּ"ז) after the initials of his name, Rabbi David ben Zimra, was an early Acharon of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries who was a leading posek, rosh yeshiva, chief rabbi, and author of more than 3,000 responsa as well as several scholarly works.
Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon (1166–1224) was a French tosafist born in Paris.
Alfandari was a family of eastern rabbis prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries, found in Smyrna, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The name may be derived from a Spanish locality, perhaps from Alfambra. The following is a list of the chief members of the family:
Calatayud in Spain had a large Jewish community as early as the reign of Abd al-Rahman III. In 1882, while workmen were digging the foundation of a house, they discovered a marble tombstone bearing a Hebrew inscription in memory of a certain Samuel b. Solomon, who died Marheshwan 11, 4680. By the kings of Aragon, the Jews of Calatayud were granted certain privileges, among which was one with regard to the oath; and these privileges were from time to time renewed.
Hachmei Provence refers to the hekhamim, "sages" or "rabbis," of Provence, now Occitania in France, which was a great center for Rabbinical Jewish scholarship in the times of the Tosafists. The singular form is hakham, a Sephardic and Hachmei Provençal term for a rabbi.
The Curiel family is a prominent Sephardi Jewish family.
The Aboab family is an old and distinguished Western Sephardic family, originally from Aragon, Spain. The family has produced several notable rabbis, scholars, physicians, and merchants - especially achieving prominence in Amsterdam, Venice and Hamburg. The progenitor of the family is Rav Abraham Aboab, who, in 1263 was given a tower in Altea, Aragon with the surrounding dairy farms along with a heraldic achievement by James I of Aragon. Some have suggested that Aboab is a spelling of the Arabic "Abdelwahab", which means "the benefactor’s servant", while others have stated that it derives from the town of Umm al-Abohav in Tunisia.
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