ר' יוסף קמחי

Rav Yosef Kimchi (c. 4865/1105–c. 4930/1170), known by the acronym RIKaM and in English sources as Joseph Kimhi, was a mefaresh of Tanach, a grammarian, a paytan and a translator. Born in Muslim Spain, he fled with his family when the Almohade persecutions came and settled in Narbonne in Provence, where he lived out his days. He was the father of Rav Moshe Kimchi, the Ramak, and of Rav David Kimchi, the Radak, and the rebbi of Rav Menachem ben Shimon of Posquières and of the poet Yosef ibn Zabara.

He wrote on nearly the whole of Tanach, naming his works after phrases of the Torah: Sefer HaTorah on the Chumash and Sefer HaMikneh on Nevi’im. Little of it came down whole, but much is preserved inside his grammatical writing and in the sefarim of his son the Radak, who brings his words in his father’s name; the Ramban cites him on Bereishit, as do the Baal HaTurim and Rav Avraham Zacuto in Yuchasin. His way is peshat: grammar, syntax and the plain sense of the words, weighed against the nekudot and the te’amim. He kept his distance from allegory even in Shir HaShirim and in Iyov, where he explained the satan along rational lines, after the manner of Rav Saadia Gaon.

His two works of grammar are Sefer Zikaron and Sefer HaGalui. The first is a full and ordered grammar, best known for dividing the Hebrew vowels into five short and five long — his own innovation, drawn from what he knew of Latin grammar, and remembered by the siman baruch shomer piv for the long and mikol tumat peh for the short. Sefer HaGalui, written in 4925/1165, rules on the disputed points between Menachem ben Saruk and Dunash ben Labrat, takes issue with the decisions Rabbeinu Tam had given in that same quarrel, and adds independent objections to Menachem. In his introduction he asks pardon for standing against so great a man; Binyamin of Canterbury, a talmid of Rabbeinu Tam, wrote in his rebbi’s defense and dubbed Rav Yosef the crier. He wrote all his sefarim in Hebrew, and so carried the linguistic science of Spain to the Jews of Christian Europe who had no Arabic.

He turned the Chovot HaLevavot of Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pakuda from Arabic into Hebrew, and recast the Mivchar HaPeninim of Rav Shlomo ibn Gabirol into rhymed form under the title Shekel HaKodesh. At the request of his talmidim he composed Sefer HaBrit, a dialogue meant to strengthen Jews who had to answer the claims of their neighbors. Two of his piyutim have come down, Yom Shabbat Zachor and Yom Shabbat Shamor, written to expand the berachah me’ein sheva of Shabbat maariv; they are the earliest known Magen Avot piyutim, a form he appears to have originated, and Yom Shabbat Zachor spread through western Ashkenaz and is still said in some kehillot when the second day of Shavuot falls on Shabbat.