ר' מנחם רקנאטי

Rabbi Menachem ben Binyamin Recanati was a mekubal and posek who lived in the town of Recanati in Italy in the second half of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. Little is known of his life. He was among the first mekubalim of Italy, and the influence of the Chasidei Ashkenaz — Rabbi Yehudah HeChasid and Rabbi Elazar of Wormaisa — is evident in his writings, as is that of the Ramban, whom he quotes a great deal.

He was much influenced by the Rambam and by philosophy, which he regarded as completing the wisdom of kabbalah, and he studied logic and philosophy to assist him in his own work, seeking to uphold kabbalah by reasoned argument. He rarely writes on his own account, bringing other authorities almost throughout, and he speaks with the highest regard of the mekubalim who preceded him.

His principal work in kabbalah is his commentary on the Torah, Peirush al HaTorah, printed at Venice in 5283/1523, which describes visions and revelations of his own; it influenced mekubalim of later generations, was printed again at Lublin in 1595 with the commentary of Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, and was rendered into Latin. He wrote as well a commentary on the tefillot and a work on the reasons for the mitzvot, printed together at Constantinople in 5303/1543, and Piskei Recanati, his one halachic work, first printed at Bologna in 5298/1538 and reprinted many times since. Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Finzi of Recanati was among his descendants.