NETHANEL BEN MESHULLAM HA-LEVI
- NETHANEL BEN MESHULLAM HA-LEVI
- NETHANEL BEN MESHULLAM HA-LEVI (1660/1665–1735?), Italian
kabbalist. Nethanel was born in Modena and was ordained rabbi around
1685. His first rabbinical post appears to have been in his native town,
during the lifetime of his father, Meshullam b. Benzion ha-Levi, a
kabbalist, who was a member of the Modena rabbinate. From 1693 Nethanel
was also rabbi in Lugo, Pesaro, Padua, and Cento. In 1728 he returned to
Modena, apparently succeeding Ephraim Kohen of Ostrog as chief rabbi,
serving in that position until his death. Some of his responsa were
published in the works of his contemporaries, such as the Paḥad
Yiẓḥak of isaac lampronti and the Shemesh
Ẓedakah (Venice, 1743) of samson morpurgo . Of great
importance is his responsum written in Pesaro (in Shemesh
Ẓedakah, ḤM, no. 33), in which he discusses
communal taxation and intercommunity responsibility, and protests
against rabbis who pass judgment on matters concerning other communities
without the consent of their local rabbis. In the sphere of Kabbalah his
work exhibits affinity with the thought of Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto
. He was close to the Kabbalah circle of abraham rovigo and
mordecai ashkenazi . His son, ẒEVI HA-LEVI, an
emissary of the Holy Land, was one of the scholars of the yeshivah of
Ḥayyim ibn Attar in Jerusalem.
-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Wilensky, in: KS, 23 (1946/47), 131–9; 24 (1947/48), 160.
(Abraham David)
Encyclopedia Judaica.
1971.
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