Baḥya Ibn Halawa

Baḥya ben Asher Ibn Halawa lived in Saragossa, in Christian Spain, where he was an explicator of biblical texts. He is best known for his Hebrew commentary on the Torah, completed around 1291, that included kabbalistic interpretations. He also composed a Hebrew commentary on the mishnaic tractate Pirke Avot and an ethical work, also in Hebrew, titled Kad ha-kemaḥ (The Jar of Flour), which discusses the basic pillars of faith, divine attributes, prayer, love of one’s fellow man, and piety. In another work, Shulḥan arba‘ (Table of Four), Baḥya outlines rules for eating and mealtimes. His writings often quote kabbalistic teachings from scholars of Moses Naḥmanides’ generation (cited anonymously) and thus constitute an important source of information about those scholars, many of whose works have been lost.