ADONIM BEN NISAN HA-LEVI

ADONIM BEN NISAN HA-LEVI (c. 1000), paytan and rabbi. Adonim, who served as a rabbi in Fez, Morocco, was among the first to use Arabic-Spanish metrics in his writings. Only a few of his piyyutim have survived, among them the lamentation "Bekhu, Immi Benei Immi"; the reshut to Parshat ha-Ḥodesh (see special sabbaths ) "Areshet Sefatenu Petaḥ Hodayot"; and the seliḥot "Eli Hashiveni me-Anaḥah u-Mehumah" and "Ro'eh Yisrael Ezon Enkat Ẓonekha." His piyyutim excel in their fine poetic language and their originality. Several philosophical concepts which were discussed in intellectual circles in his days find expression in his works. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Pinsker, Likkutei Kadmoniyyot (1860), 56–57, 105–7; Fuenn, Keneset, 72; Scheiber, in: A. Marx Jubilee Volume (1950), 539–42; Zulay, in: Sinai, 29 (1951), 24–34. (Abraham Meir Habermann)