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?ayyim, Abraham

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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?ayyim, Abraham ben Judah Ibn

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Rabbi of Narbonne, where he lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. He was a brother of Reuben ben ?ayyim, the pupil of Isaac ha-Kohen of Narbonne, and the teacher of Menahem Me�ri. Abraham left his native place about 1240 and settled at Villefranche-de-Confluent, a small town in Roussillon, where his son, the philosopher Levi ben Abraham, author of "Liwyat ?en," was born. The son took an active part in the religious discussions that lasted from 1303 to 1306.

In the introduction to his work, "Bet ha-Be?irah," Menahem Meiri refers to Abraham ben ?ayyim in the highest terms, and names him among the most famous rabbis of Narbonne ("Rabbins Fran�ais," p. 543). Gr�tz ("Gesch. d. Juden," 6:466) confounds him with Abraham ben ?ayyim of B�ziers, to whom Abraham ibn Ezra, while in that city in 1155, dedicated his "Sefer ha-Shem." He is, rather, to be identified with the poet Abraham ben ?ayyim, the author of the four liturgical compositions (?erobot) embodied in the ritual used in the city of Carpentras, France, and which were recited on Sabbath Parah in the ancient Comtat-Venaissin. Indeed, one of these poems bears the acrostic of Abraham and another that of Abraham bar ?ayyim.