Critical Notes

In this Hebrew work, Isaac al-Fāsī responds to a ruling by Isaac ben Baruch Ibn Albalia (al-Bālīya; d. 1094), an Andalusi talmudist, astronomer, astrologer, poet, and writer, who lived at various times in Córdoba, Lucena, Seville, and Granada. He is known for two books, both now lost: one on the calendar, and one, never finished, called The Spice-Peddler’s Basket (Kupat ha-rokhelim), which discussed difficult passages in the Talmud. Al-Fāsī arrived in Lucena in 1088, six years before Ibn Albalia’s death, and quickly began criticizing the halakhic basis of certain practices in his new home. These excerpted passages address the prohibition against setting sail within three days of the Sabbath, an almost unending area of disagreement among medieval halakhists. Ibn Albalia’s arguments do not survive, but he apparently limited this prohibition to ships that were of a fairly large size.