חזקיה בן מנוח

Rav Chizkiya ben Manoach, the French rishon known to all by the name of his sefer, the Chizkuni, was a rav and commentator on the Chumash. He wrote his peirush on the five chumashim in memory of his father, who had lost his right hand for his steadfastness in his faith. It was first printed in Venice in 5284/1524, and again in Cremona in 5319/1559, and from then on in countless editions of the Chumash.

The Chizkuni is among the first systematic peirushim built upon the peirush of Rashi, preceding the Ramban in that field. In his hakdamah the rishon tells that he wandered through many lands in search of straight explanations of the Torah, and that he gathered his work from some twenty earlier peirushim, taking the best of each — among them the peirushim of Rashi, the Ibn Ezra, the Rashbam, and Rav Yosef Bechor Shor, whose reality-minded approach left a strong mark on him. He named the sefer Chizkuni both for himself, Chizkiya, and, as he asks of his readers in the hakdamah, that they remember him and strengthen him. Save for Rashi and a handful of early sources, he chose not to name the works he drew upon — so as to avoid bias, he wrote, and to give honor to the small alongside the great.