Twelfth-century family of Bible commentators and Hebrew grammarians of Spanish origin living in Provence.
Joseph Kimḥi
(1105-1170; known as Rikam, the acronym of Rabbi Joseph Kimḥi) was born in southern Spain; to escape persecution, he moved to Narbonne, Provence, where he died. He was a contemporary of Abraham Ibn Ezra, who quoted him in his commentaries. Both devoted themselves to making Arabic-Jewish works available to the Jews in Europe through Hebrew translation. Among Kimḥi's translations is Baḥya Ibn Pakuda's ethical work Ḥovot ha-Levavot ("Duties of the Heart"). His contribution to Hebrew grammar was significant. He was not afraid of polemics and wrote one of the earliest Jewish anti-Christian polemical treatises in Europe, the Sefer ha-Berit, in which he rejected a number of Christian interpretations of Scriptural concepts, such as original sin, the relative morality of Jews and Christians, and the attitude towards usury. The treatise is written in the form of a discussion between a "believer" (ma'amin) and an apostate or heretic (min). In his commentaries he favored a terse style, giving the peshat, or plain sense, and avoiding the aggadic, or homiletic approach common in the Provenc̣al schools. He wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch called Sefer ha-Torah.
Moses Kimḥi
(died c. 1190; known as Remak, the acronym of Rabbi Moses Kimḥi) was Joseph's eldest son. He was a pupil of his father and he too adopted a "plain" style and wrote commentaries on the Books of Proverbs, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Job. His principle work was a pioneer Hebrew grammar, Mahalakh Shevilé ha-Da'at, in which he presented an innovative order and arrangement of the verb conjugations, followed to this day. Translated into Latin, the Mahalakh was widely used by Christian Hebraists in the 16th century.
David Kimḥi
(c. 1160-1235; known as Radak, the acronym of Rabbi David Kimḥi) was born in Narbonne. He was the youngest son of the Kimḥi family and its most illustrious member. His biblical commentaries are published in most rabbinic editions of the Bible. His commentaries were translated into Latin and widely studied by Christian Hebraists during the Renaissance, despite the fact that they contained polemical material, especially in his commentary on Psalms. (For a time these polemical passages were omitted by order of the censor; eventually they were published separately under the title Teshuvot la-Notserim, "Answers to the Christians").
As a result of the popularity of his commentaries, he may be said to have profoundly if indirectly influenced the King James, or Authorised Version, of the Bible, published in 1611, as well as other European translations. In his commentaries, he makes frequent reference to contemporary events. For example, on the verse, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Ps. 122:6), he refers to the Crusades: "For until now Jerusalem had no peace, for the uncircumcised (i.e., the Christians) and the Ishmaelites were fighting for her possession." He quotes prolifically from the works of his predecessors. He draws extensively on talmudic and midrashic literature and refers to such authorities as Saadiah Gaon, Samuel Ha-Nagid, and Ibn Gabirol, whose literary works were known to him in Arabic.
The major issue of the day among Jewish scholars was the controversy over the rationalist writings of Maimonides. Kimḥi took a vigorous stand in defense of Maimonides against the rabbis of northern France, who had pronounced a ban against the Guide and the philosophical portions of the Mishneh Torah, and journeyed to Spain to persuade the scholars there to join with the men of Provence on the side of tolerance.
In the area of Hebrew grammar, David Kimḥi's Mikhlol, which primarily compiled and systematized earlier works, is a significant contribution due to its lucidity and to the vast knowledge of its author. He enjoyed great popularity as a preacher and teacher and took pains to make the text understood by his listeners, which made him somewhat prolix and repetitious. In a play on the words of Avot (3:21), "If there is no kemaḥ [lit. "flour," i.e., bread, but here alluding to Kimḥi] there is no Torah," it was said of him that one cannot understand Scripture without Kimḥi's interpretations.
