Provence a province in southern France, was a great Torah center in the times of the Tosafists. The rabbis of Provence were separately classified as Hachmei Provence - the wise of Provence, or Provençal rabbis. Their position in matters of Halacha as well as their traditions and custom were intermediate between the Sephardic tradition of the neighboring Spanish scholars, and the Old French (similar to the Ashkenazic) tradition represented by the Tosafists.
The term Provence in sight of Jewish tradition is not limited to the Provençal region of today but refers to the entire southern coast of France. This includes Narbonne which is sometimes wrongly transliterated as Narvona, as a result of the back-and-forth transliteration between Hebrew and French[1] ; Lunel which is wrongly transliterated as Lunil[2], and also the mountain city of Montpellier.
There was a distinctive Provençal liturgy, used by the Jews of the Papal enclave of Comtat Venaissin, who remained following the expulsion of the Jews from the rest of France.[3] This liturgy was intermediate in character between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi rites, and was in some ways closer to the Italian rite than to either. After the French Revolution, when Venaissin was united to France, the Provençal rite was replaced by the Portuguese liturgy, which is used by the Jews of Carpentras today.
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Partial List
Hachmei Narbonne
- Moses ha-Darshan
- Makhir of Narbonne and his great family.
- Moses ben Joseph ben Merwan ha-Levi
- Joseph Kimhi and sons David and Moshe.
- Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne the Eshkol, also known as the RABaD II.
- Isaac ben Merwan ha-Levi
- Aaron ben Jacob Ha-Kohen the Orhoth Chaim, according to some he lived in Lunel.
Lunel
- Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona the Baal haMaor.
- Abraham ben Nathan haYarhi (Yarah is Hebrew of moon, which is Lune in French, the source for the city-name Lunel).
- Yonatan Hakohen of Lunel.
- Abba Mari haYarhi, and his son Isaac.
Montpellier
- Solomon of Montpellier who led the movement against Maimonides.
Rest of Provence
- Abraham ben David known as the RABaD or RABaD III'.
- His son Isaac the Blind a famous Kabalist
- Menachem Meiri
- Nathan ben Meir of Trinquetaille, Provence,
- Shem-Tob ben Isaac of Tortosa
- The famous family Ibn Tibbon.
- Caslari family of Carpentras.
- Bonet de Lattes
- Jacob Anatoli
Members of the Kalonymus Family
References
- ^ Introduction to Pesochim
Ou - ^ Daily halacha
- ^ For this liturgy, see Seder ha-Tamid, Avignon 1776.
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
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