Person · 4865–4930 AM · 1105 CE — 1170 CE
Rabbi Joseph Kimhi רבי יוסף בן יצחק קמחי
he carried the Arabic science of Hebrew into Christian Europe
He was the first to divide the vowels into five long and five short—and so they are taught to this day. Sefer Zikkaron is a grammar; Sefer ha-Galui, of 1165, takes up the old dispute of Menachem ben Saruk with Dunash ben Labrat, and there he contradicts even Rabbeinu Tam. Sefer ha-Berit is a conversation between a Jew and a Christian, among the first written down in Hebrew.
He was the first to mark the reflexive-intransitive sense of the hif'il, and he gave a list of noun patterns and eight classes of verb. His sons were Moses and David Kimhi; the whole grammar of Provence came out of his house.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Sefer ha-Galui, 1165 — objections to Rabbeinu Tam in the dispute over Menachem and Dunash
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years, the books and his place in the school of Provence
Basis: documents and evidence.