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?efe? B. Ya?lia?

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Halakist; lived toward the end of the tenth century. Rapoport assumes him to have beena Palestinian, but it is more probable that he lived in Kairwan. He was the author of a work, now lost, in which, as its name "Sefer ha-Mi?wot" indicates, the 613 commandments were enumerated (see see COMMANDMENTS, THE 613). Unlike his predecessors in this field, ?efe?, besides an enumeration of the laws, gave, in brief, reasons for their existence. He was thus, perhaps, the first in the field of the "?a'ame ha-Mi?wot," which afterward had so many exponents. Moreover, the "Sefer ha-Mi?wot" contained not only the Biblical ordinances, but also their Talmudic-rabbinical amplifications and interpretations. ?efe? gave what may be described as a brief summary of Biblical, Talmudic, and geonic literature, including also formulas for prayer. The book was highly esteemed by the Spanish and German-French authorities, and the decisions of its author, who was referred to as "Gaon," "Resh Kallah," and "Alluf," had such authority that even Maimonides acknowledged himself under obligation to him (comp. his responsum in "Pe'er ha-Dor," No. 140). ?efe? was a grammarian and a philosopher as well as a halakist, and, what is very remarkable, he managed to express his philological and philosophical opinions even in his "Sefer ha-Mi?wot." Jonah ibn Jana?, Judah ibn Balaam, Solomon Par?on, and Tan?um Yerushalmi quote grammatical as well as lexicographical remarks from ?efe?'s "Sefer ha-Mi?wot." To judge from these quotations, ?efe? not only explained the Biblical verses of a legislative nature which he had quoted in his enumeration of the 613 laws, but also at times referred to passages from Scriptural books other than those of the Pentateuch; even post-Biblical literature was drawn upon for the interpretation of Biblical passages.

?efe? was a philosopher of authority, as a quotation from his work in Judah b. Barzillai's commentary to the "Sefer Ye?irah" indicates (pp. 55-56). As Kaufmann has already noted, Ba?ya ben Joseph ibn Pa?uda's proof of the existence of God from the combination of the four elements, notwithstanding their opposing natures ("?obot ha-Lebabot," 1:6), is derived from the "Sefer ha-Mi?wot" of ?efe?. Ba?ya's teaching concerning the unity of God and the anthropomorphism of the Scriptures may probably also be traced back to ?efe?, whose work is quoted by Ba?ya in the introduction to his book (comp. Kaufmann in Judah b. Barzillai's Commentary, p. 335). The tosafists, like the other German-French authors, quote legal decisions from the works of ?efe?, while assuming the author of them to have been R. Hananeel. It has been clearly demonstrated, however, that not Hananeel, but ?efe?, was the author of the work. The misunderstanding arose through a false interpretation of the abbreviation ) as . Whether the "book ?efe?" is any other than the "Sefer ha-Mi?wot" is still in doubt; it is possible that the "book ?efe?" may mean the "book by ?efe?," and therefore the "Sefer ha-Mi?wot." If both refer to the same book, the "Sefer ha-Mi?wot" must have been a voluminous codex, as the quotations from the "book ?efe?" cover all departments of Jewish law�ritual law, civil law, etc. On the other hand, Rapoport's claim, which makes ?efe? the author also of the "Mi??o'ot" (Hananeel b. ?ushiel), has been proved to be without foundation. Nor was ?efe? the author of the "We-Hizhir."