Person · 4875–4946 AM · 1115 CE — 1186 CE
Baal ha-Maor—Rabbi Zerahiah ha-Levi רבי זרחיה הלוי, בעל המאור
the man who contradicted Alfasi and drew answers from the Raavad and the Ramban
Gerona bore him; he studied at Narbonne under Rabbi Moshe ben Yosef and taught at Lunel. His strictures on the Raavad's book on the laws of purity are written just as sharply, and the enmity between them was long.
The dispute proved more fruitful than agreement: the Maor, Katuv Sham and the Milchamot are printed together with Alfasi and are read as one conversation across generations. Shmuel ibn Tibbon was his student.
The years are disputed. The Jewish Encyclopedia rejects both the usual date of birth, 1131, and the date of death, 1186; modern works give about 1115 and "after 1186". We take the latter and name the former.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Sefer ha-Maor — the examination of Alfasi's Halakhot
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years and the dispute over them; the teachers and the students
Basis: documents and evidence.