מאיר סהולה

Rabbi Meir ben Shlomo ibn Sahula (מאיר סהולה), also called Ben Sahula, was a rishon of Sefarad, a mekubal (master of kabbalah) who also wrote tosafot. He lived from about 1251 to after 1335. He is known best for his peirush on Sefer HaBahir, which he put out under the name Or HaGanuz (The Hidden Light).

He was born in Sefarad (Spain). His brother was the philosopher and mekubal Rabbi Yitzchak ibn Sahula. In his youth he learned under Rabbi Yehoshua ibn Shuaib and also received Torah from the Rashba. Afterward he joined the circle of mekubalim in Guadalajara, where he wrote a peirush on the hidden teachings in the Ramban’s peirush on the Torah.

Between 1320 and 1325 he began writing tosafot of his own, but finished only part of Bereishit. In those years he also wrote a peirush on Sefer Yetzirah, completed in 1331, in which he sharply criticizes what the Ramban wrote on its first perek. He then turned to the Bahir and finished his peirush on it in 1335. He also wrote a kabbalistic peirush on Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer and a peirush on the Talmud Yerushalmi; both are lost.

His notes on Sefer Yetzirah and the Bahir drew criticism over the years, and he was charged with giving the Ramban views the Ramban did not hold; Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz said that he did not aim at the truth. Others valued him: Rabbi Meir HaKohen Poppers praised his peirush on Sefer Yetzirah and built his own peirush on it.

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