Creator Bio
Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona
11th Century–12th Century
Born in Barcelona, Isaac ben Reuben served as a judge in Denia, a small city on the Mediterranean coast. In Denia, Isaac married into the Ibn Laktush family and composed talmudic commentaries. He is best known for his poetic enumeration of the 613 commandments (azharot), which was recited in many communities and attracted a learned commentary. Isaac also served as a translator of Judeo-Arabic halakhic works into Hebrew, such as Hayya Ga’on’s The Book of Buying and Selling (Kitāb al-shirā’ wa-’l-buyū‘) and David ben Se‘adya’s The Book of Oaths (Kitāb al-aymān). Both works remained in circulation and use for generations.
Content by Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona
Primary Source
Where is the place of understanding?
Where is the place of understanding? Whence is it? Where is it? [It is] the treasury of wisdom and knowledge, the beginning of [God’s] creation. When I come today [on Shavuot] to ask with whom He took…
Primary Source
David ben Se‘adya’s The Book of Oaths (Hebrew Translation)
The Book of Oaths, Section 3
We find in the Torah and the Talmud that whether one mentions the ineffable Name or one of the [other]…