ẒAYYAḤ (Ẓiyyaḥ), JOSEPH BEN ABRAHAM IBN

ẒAYYAḤ (Ẓiyyaḥ), JOSEPH BEN ABRAHAM IBN (16th century), rabbi and kabbalist. Ẓayyaḥ was apparently born in jerusalem . There he completed his Even ha-Shoham in 1538. From Jerusalem he went to damascus to serve as rabbi of the Mostarabian (the native Jewish) community but paid frequent visits to Jerusalem. He was regarded in his time as an important posek. A number of his responsa have been published in some of his contemporaries' collected responsa, such as those of Joseph caro , Moses di trani , Levi b. Ḥabib , and others who were on friendly terms with him. A number of his works have remained in manuscript, including a large collection of responsa, two of which were published by S. Assaf (see bibliography). From one of them it can be inferred that he took an active part in the dispute in safed on whether scholars should be exempted from taxation, and he was among those who upheld the exemption.   Three of his kabbalistic works are known: Even ha-Shoham (Jerusalem National Library, Ms. 416), in which the author with great profundity combines the kabbalistic doctrine of combination of letters of the alphabet (ḥokhmat ha-ẓeruf) with that of emanation (aẓilut), a work which was popular among Yemenite Jews; Ẓeror ha-Ḥayyim (London, Jews College, Ms. 318), a curious commentary to the Oẓar ha-Kavod of todros abulafia . He dedicated both these works to abraham de castro , who was leader of the Jews in Egypt. The third work, She'erit Yosef (Vienna, Ms. 260), was compiled in Jerusalem in 1549 and is a kind of supplement to and commentary on his Even ha-Shoham. This work is apparently mentioned in the Torat ha-Kena'ot of jacob emden (Lemberg, 1870, p. 69), where he states that nehemiah hayon took a number of ideas from the She'erit Yosef and made wrong use of them. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Hirschensohn, in: Hamisderonah, 1 (1885), 192–201, 255–9; Frumkin-Rivlin, 1 (1929), 67–69; G. Scholem, Kitvei Yad be-Kabbalah (1930), 89–91; A.Z. Schwarz, Die hebraeischen Handschriften in Oesterreich (1931), 203, no. 260; S. Assaf, in: KS, 11 (1934/35), 492–6; M. Benayahu, in: Sefunot, 7 (1963), 103–17. (Abraham David)