פרץ הכהן

Peretz Gerondi, Rabbi Peretz ben Yitzchak HaKohen (פרץ הכהן), called Rabbeinu Peretz or the Rafach, was a rishon and one of the great talmidei chachamim of Sefarad (Spain) in the fourteenth century (1304–1370). He was the rebbi of the Ran and of the Rivash. He wrote a peirush on the Talmud and a sefer of drashot in kabbalah.

He was born in Provence and learned Torah from his father, Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yehudah HaKohen, a humble talmid chacham who signed his letters “Yitzchak HaAluv (the lowly) ben HaRav Yehudah HaKohen.” Rabbi David ben Shmuel of Estella, author of Sefer HaBatim on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, calls the father “holy to Hashem, honored, our teacher Rav Yitzchak HaKohen of Manosque.” As a grown man Rabbi Peretz served as a dayan and a teacher of halacha in Toledo.

He began writing his peirushim on the Talmud at the age of twenty-two. Those known today cover only four masechtot: Shabbat, Eruvin, Nazir and Sanhedrin; some hold that he wrote on every masechet and that the rest have been lost. He usually opens with his father’s words and then reads the language of the Gemara with great care to bring out his own chiddushim.

The sefer Maarechet HaElokut, drashot on the Torah according to kabbalah, is attributed to him. These are deep drashot that cannot be understood without prior knowledge of kabbalah, and it is not known whether he gave them in the beit knesset or to a smaller circle.

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