Ritva—Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham רבי יום טוב בן אברהם אלאשבילי
the clearest of the Talmud commentators
Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham Asevilli (c. 1250–1330) was from Seville—hence "Asevilli"; he studied in Barcelona under the Rashba and the Ra'ah and became rabbi of Saragossa. His commentaries cover most of the Talmud.
The mark of his writing is a refusal of effect. Where the Rashba builds an edifice and the Tosafists collide contradictions, the Ritva takes the sugya and takes it apart by its parts, naming every opinion and saying which seems to him right and why. And so the Chiddushei haRitva are opened first when one needs not to be struck but to understand.
He also wrote in defence of tradition against extreme rationalism—the Sefer haZikaron, an answer to the Ramban's strictures on Rambam: a rare case of a student reconciling two teachers of his own school.
The sources give no exact years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman and the lists of Seder haDorot.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Chiddushei haRitva — commentaries on most of the Talmud
- Sefer haZikaron — the defence of Rambam against the Ramban's strictures
Scholarship
- Reference literature: years of life — the years of birth and death by the agreed count of the reference literature; where the source says «about», it is marked as such
Basis: documents and evidence.