שם טוב אבן גאון

Rabbi Shem Tov ben Avraham ibn Gaon (Shem Tov ibn Gaon, שם טוב אבן גאון; 1275–1330) was a rishon of Spain, the author of Migdal Oz on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah and of several sefarim of kabbalah. He learned in the beit midrash of the Rashba together with the Ritva; his other teacher, mainly in kabbalah, was Rabbi Yitzchak bar Todros, one of the great rabbis of Barcelona.

Ibn Gaon was much occupied with the hidden Torah. The best known of his kabbalistic works is Keter Shem Tov, which explains the sodot (hidden meanings) that the Ramban alludes to in his peirush on the Torah. His main work, however, is Migdal Oz on the Mishneh Torah. There he holds that the Rambam knew the wisdom of the sod, answering the Raavad’s doubt on that very point.

He spent a period in Eretz Yisrael and most likely wrote Migdal Oz after he returned. In the introduction to his Badei Aron u-Migdal Chananel he writes that in 5085 (1325) he went up to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Tzfat with his friend Rabbi Chananel bar Avraham Askira; the friend passed away three months later, and he named the work in his memory. In the same introduction he tells of the troubles of those years: his sons and daughters passed away, and he was left with no descendants at all.

Ibn Gaon is also cited in a well-known halachic dispute over the text of the Torah whether the word daka in sefer Devarim is written with an alef or with a heh.

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