אהרן בן יוסף הלוי

Rav Aharon HaLevi (c. 4995/1235–c. 5063/1303), known as the Ra’ah and in English sources as Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi, was among the chachamim of Sefarad in the thirteenth century, a commentator on the Talmud, and the principal rebbi of the Ritva. He was born in Girona to Rav Yosef, fifth in descent from Rav Zerachiah HaLevi on his father’s side; his growing years were spent mainly in Barcelona, and he is therefore also called Rav Aharon HaLevi HaBartzeloni. In his youth he learned under his brother Rav Pinchas HaLevi and under the Ramban, and also under his nephew Rav Yitzchak HaLevi, son of his brother Shmuel Benveniste. In 5044/1284 he was appointed rav of Saragossa, moved afterward to Toledo, and in the end returned to Barcelona; later he went to Montpellier in southern Provence, where he taught Torah until his petirah. His word carried in Saragossa long after him: some sixty-five years later the Ran would not annul a ruling the Ra’ah had given to a kehillah of that city, though he held it to be mistaken.

He learned before the Ramban together with the Rashba, and with time disagreements grew between the two. The Ra’ah differed with the Rashba in a number of matters in halacha, and wrote a work of hasagot on the Rashba’s halachic composition Torat HaBayit, called Bedek HaBayit; the Rashba answered him in Mishmeret HaBayit, but the Ra’ah never replied to it, having been niftar some ten years before the Rashba. His short work on the laws of wine is printed together with the Rashba’s Avodat HaKodesh. Once a matter brought before the two of them could not be settled, neither willing to yield to the other, and the case had to be referred to the chachamim of France.

He wrote a commentary on most of the masechtot of the Talmud, of which few are in our hands: his commentary on Ketubot survives, and there are rulings under the name Chiddushei HaRa’ah on Sukkah, Beitzah, Avodah Zarah and Chullin, while the chiddushim on Kiddushin printed in his name are not his. He wrote also on the Halachot of the Rif, of which Brachot and Ta’anit have been published under the title Pekudat HaLeviyim. His Nezer HaKodesh, a short work on the whole Talmud in the manner of the Rif’s composition, is not in our hands. His talmid the Ritva, author of chiddushim on the Shas and of the Sefer HaZikaron, brings many of his explanations in his own chiddushim; among his other talmidim were Rav Don Astruc Crescas, who wrote chiddushim on Bava Metzia, and Rav Crescas Vidal, whose chiddushim on Ketubot are in our hands.